After Covid and Olympics, Yuriko Koike set for third term as Tokyo governor

In Sunday’s presidential election, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is certain to get a second consecutive name, according to leave elections.

The 71- year- ancient first female governor of Japan’s most popular city, may secure her position for another four years.

Her success will be a relief for ailing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Liberal Democratic Party, who backed the 71-year-old to get a second word.

She was elected in 2016, and won her second term in 2020. The conservative government properly steered the city to a successful summer Olympics in 2021 and the coronavirus pandemic.

The winner of this election will now have to work hard to reduce Tokyo’s startlingly low birth rate. This is a big issue because Japan’s fertility rate is rapidly declining. At 0.99- less than one child per person aged between 15 and 49- it is the lowest of any place globally.

With Tokyo accounting for almost 20 % of the country’s GDP and accounting for about 11 % of the population, her appointment makes her one of the most powerful women in Japanese politics.

It also puts her in charge of the city’s budget – which climbed to a staggering 16.55 trillion yen ($ 100bn, £80bn ) this fiscal year.

Ms Koike, 71, got more than 40% of the vote according to Reuters.

Surprisingly, Shinji Ishimaru, 41, a previous president of a village in Hiroshima province, placed next, a place that was much thought to be guaranteed for Renho Saito.

Ms Renho, 56, supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan ( CDPJ), came in third.

Mr. Ishimaru’s success is thought to be credited to his big virtual following and his mobilization of young voters. His strategy also concentrated on strengthening Tokyo’s business and industry.

Yuriko Koike began her career as a columnist and television news anchor before launching a campaign in the early 1990s.

She won the governorship of Tokyo for the first time in 2016, but it was n’t until 2016 that she truly rose to national prominence. She won easily over the LDP’s established candidate, receiving more than 2.9 million votes, making her the first woman to hold the position.

On election night, Ms. Koike promised supporters,” I will guide Tokyo politics in an exceptional way, a Tokyo you have never seen.”

Although she still has the help of many in the group, who gave her their help in the 2024 election, she actually left the LDP in 2017 to form her own social group.

Ms. Koike vowed to concentrate on local issues during her name, including tackling the city culture and the homelessness on public transportation. However, international problems predominated during her term in office.

The introduction of Covid- 19 forced Tokyo to postpone its summertime Olympics, planned for 2020. Following her effective management of the epidemic, Ms. Koike was elected next in that year and received praise for organizing the city’s postponed 2021 Olympic Games in the shadow of the coronavirus.

Ms Koike, however has not escaped scandal. An allegation that she never graduated from Cairo University – first reported during her first term – has never quite died away. Despite repeated denials from her and a statement confirming her graduation from the university itself, reports that she falsified her graduation documents still persisted during her try at a third gubernatorial term.

She was also criticized for failing to fulfill her commitments in Tokyo by competitors. According to them, the stress culture and crowded trains still remain a problem.

Of the 56 candidates the citizens had to choose from, it had been expected Renho Saito had been Ms Koike’s primary opponent.

The primary opposition group, as well as the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party, supported the original lower home member.

Before the CDP’s established campaigning began on June 20, Ms. Renho left. When she filed her election, she lost her chair in the Upper House.

She assumed the position of center-left leader in 2016 as its first female head, but she quit a year later because of poor election results in Tokyo’s provincial elections.

The race was portrayed by Chinese media as a proxy war between the country’s political parties, with the left-leaning opposition politician challenging the liberal incumbent.

In addition, the general election took place in a state of basic mistrust of politics. Critics claim that this is in part due to the Japanese’s financial difficulties, which were followed by the end of the protracted traditional deflation, and the yen’s weakening.