After being informed that she had won the election, Ikuina tearfully addresses the audience next to a poster of former Prime Minister Abe.Former Onyanko Club member Akiko Ikuina, 54, who was elected to the House of Councillors for the first time in the July 10 election, has caused a stir by refusing to appear on the program.“The incident took place during “Akira Ikegami’s Upper House Election Live,” a special TV Tokyo election program broadcast on the evening of January 10 and anchored by Akira Ikegami (71). During the program, Ikegami revealed that Ikuina had refused to appear in all the election special programs, including this one. He also introduced a comment from a member of Ms. Ikuina’s campaign that Ms. Ikuina’s qualifications and studies as a member of the Diet are far from sufficient. In response to this, Ikuina’s campaign explained to some media outlets that the reason she did not appear in any of the special election programs was that they did not know when the results would be announced and that there was a time limit.”Mr. Ikegami complained in the program.
He said, “In the first place, you have been asking me to vote for you, haven’t you? If I am elected, I think it is my duty and responsibility as a politician to tell everyone what I am going to do.”

For some time, some have questioned the qualifications of Ms. Ikuina, as evidenced by the media’s “copy-and-paste” allegations that her questionnaires were identical to those of other candidates. In the final stages of the election campaign, this magazine witnessed what appeared to be Ms. Ikuina used the shooting incident involving former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as an opportunity for the election.

Ms. Ikuina making a street speech in Ginza on July 9 (Photo by Daisuke Iwasaki)On July 9, the last day of the election campaign, Ms. Ikuina was at the Ginza 4-chome intersection. Although pink was her image color, she was wearing a white polo shirt and a black arm guard as she made the following appeal:“Yesterday, former Prime Minister Abe was killed by a bullet. Can we allow such barbaric acts to continue? Can we allow such an act that shakes the very foundation of democracy? I will never allow it.”
The campaign staff also wore black mourning badges and handed out fan-shaped policy leaflets, which were dispersed one after another, causing shoppers to stop in their tracks. Ms. Ikuina told the crowd that former Prime Minister Abe was scheduled to attend her final day’s speech to cheer her on, and she shared a memory.

“When I told Abe that I was not good at giving speeches, he said, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. I was not good at it when I started, either.’ I will never forget his kind smile when he encouraged me.”

Perhaps remembering Mr. Abe before his death, she continued in a tearful voice.

“We are going to inherit the Japan that former Prime Minister Abe aimed for. We must win this campaign to do so. Please send me to the Diet.”

A former reporter said,

“During the election campaign, the election campaign team became increasingly concerned about the fact that the number of voters in Nouriya was not growing as much as expected according to the situation survey. They discussed what should be done to capture the independents, and they suggested that she should team up with Eriko Imai. When the two appeared in front of Asakusa’s Kaminarimon Gate on June 26, they drew an audience of about 2,000 people, and the campaign seemed to have gotten a good response. Even so, however, Ms. Ikuina was by no means a safe bet. Her repeated references to former Prime Minister Abe toward the end of the campaign were a sign of her sense of urgency.”

This worked, and Ms. Ikuina was elected for the first time.

Despite the “time limit,” as Mr. Ikegami puts it, explaining the situation to the voters is the foremost duty and responsibility of a politician. From now on, Ms. Ikuina will serve a six-year term and be paid a large sum of money. I wonder if she understands the significance of this.

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