The Tokyo gubernatorial election scheduled for July 7 is dominated by two ambitious female politicians, Yuriko Koike and Renho, in a Japan where women are still underrepresented in politics. Both women are promising measures to combat the declining birth rate and are divided over the redevelopment of a historic Tokyo neighborhood.
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It’s a campaign that has turned into a duel between two charismatic women in a still very male-dominated Japanese political sphere. On one side, outgoing governor Yuriko Koike, 71, and opposition figure Renho, 56 – who goes by her first name only.
Charismatic, they nevertheless do not present any detailed political program, reports our correspondent in Tokyo, Frederic Charles. Yuriko Koike launched a dating app to boost the declining birth rate. Renho, meanwhile, wants to reexamine the Meiji Jingu redevelopment project approved by Yuriko Koike, which allows for the destruction of thousands of trees and a historic baseball stadium.
In eight years at the helm of Tokyo, a city whose GDP is equal to that of the The Netherlandswhat is Yuriko Koike’s record? Zero, Renho replies, she has not achieved any of her goals. The governor is caught up in a controversy over a degree from Cairo University that she claims to have obtained. One of her former close collaborators files a complaint against her for persistent lying. Renho does not dwell too much on this controversy, because her educational background is just as obscure.
Neither candidate addresses the issues that most concern ordinary voters. As every summer, Tokyo fears a power shortage. Restarting the nuclear reactors that powered Tokyo until the accident Fukushima has become a necessity. A majority of Tokyoites are in favor of it, but the two politicians do not address this issue.
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Two seasoned candidates
Yuriko Koike, who since 2016 is the first woman to hold this position, will try to run for a third term in the elections scheduled for July 7. This former minister of defense and environment has notably managed in recent years the fight against Covid-19 in the capital and the complicated organization of the Tokyo Olympic Games, postponed by a year because of the pandemic.
Renho, an experienced politician like her, who has positioned herself for several years as a leading opponent of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD, conservative right) in power in JapanShe notably held various ministerial portfolios between 2010 and early 2012. This former model and television presenter, who has Taiwanese origins through her father, recently left the Constitutional Democratic Party (PDC) and is running as an independent candidate, just like Yuriko Koike, even though the latter is unofficially supported by the PLD, which she left in 2017.
A record 56 people have filed to run in the election. Japan, which has never had a female prime minister, has few prominent female politicians, and 84 percent of those elected to parliament are men.