Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike won a landslide victory to secure a third term, official election results showed yesterday, in a rare triumph for a woman in Japan’s male-dominated politics.
The outcome from Sunday’s vote is also a relief to unpopular Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which backed Koike, despite her not being a member.
Koike, 71, a former minister and television anchor who has governed one of the world’s biggest cities since 2016, garnered 42.8 percent of votes, results showed.
Photo： AFP
Her nearest rival was independent candidate Shinji Ishimaru, 41, the former mayor of Akitakata in western Japan, who secured 24.3 percent to pull off a surprise second place.
Koike’s main challenger had been thought to be another woman — former opposition lawmaker, model and TV anchor Renho, 56, who goes by one name — but she garnered just 18.8 percent.
Koike declared victory late on Sunday, vowing to strengthen Tokyo’s welfare, economy and natural disaster management, while acknowledging challenges like inflation and Japan’s low birth rate.
“With Tokyoites’ strong support, I was assigned to lead this great city,” Koike told supporters in the megacity of 14 million people.
“I have to upgrade efforts of Tokyo’s reforms, and as I appealed in my election campaign, I will protect Tokyo residents’ lives and livelihoods,” she said.
Japan has never had a female prime minister and a large majority of lawmakers are men, although Tokyo accounts for a 10th of the national population and a fifth of the economy.
The Tokyo vote comes after new government data showed the birth rate hit a record low of 1.20 last year, with Tokyo’s figure 0.99 — the first Japan region to fall below 1.
Koike and her major rivals pledged to expand support for parenting, with the former promising government subsidies for epidurals.
“After having their first child, I hear people say they don’t want to experience that pain again,” Koike said during the election campaign.
“I want people to see childbirth and raising children as a happiness, not a risk,” she said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS