TOKYO: Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is challenging Japan’s old-boy network in the capital, where she thrashed a ruling party rival to win her post and now aims to lead reform-minded candidates to victory in a city-wide July election.
A popular former TV announcer who speaks Arabic and English, Koike is the leader of a mega-metropolis with an economy bigger than Holland’s and a budget on par with Sweden’s - and her reformist image has some politicians betting she could become Japan’s first female premier.
For now, the former defence minister says her sights are set firmly on a July 2 Tokyo metropolitan assembly poll, where she’s targeting a majority for her fledgling “Tokyo Citizens First” party and its allies.
Koike, in an interview with Reuters, compared herself to French President Emmanuel Macron, whose election marked a meteoric rise and whose party now needs a majority in June parliamentary elections so he can carry out reforms.
“I am doing the same — trying to increase the new assembly members who aspire to reform,” she said.”Even if a (new) top leader is chosen, reforms will not progress if the legislature does not change.”
Koike, who has made good governance a key policy plank after her two predecessors quit over scandals, has already caused a crack in Abe’s ruling bloc by tying up with the Komeito party, the LDP’s junior partner, for the local poll.
After nearly a year in office, her support ratings are still above 60 per cent, prompting defections from a struggling opposition Democratic Party and from the LDP.
“If her party wins the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election by a landslide, the next goal will surely be national politics,” said Akihisa Nagashima, a lower house member of parliament from Tokyo. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
