Renho bid for Tokyo governor focuses on criticism of LDP; Incumbent Yuriko Koike cautious about support from ruling party

In the Tokyo gubernatorial election scheduled for July 7, Renho, a member of the House of Councilors of Japan’s main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, will challenge incumbent Yuriko Koike, who plans to run for a third term.

Renho announced her candidacy on Monday. She will be backed by the CDPJ and the Japanese Communist Party, while the Liberal Democratic Party and its ruling coalition partner Komeito are considering backing Koike.

However, Koike’s team is cautious about accepting support from the LDP, which has been plagued by scandals surrounding “politics and money.”

At a press conference at CDPJ headquarters on Monday afternoon, Renho criticized the LDP, saying it would not tolerate problems of “politics and money.” She accused Koike, who has sometimes worked with the LDP in Tokyo municipal leadership elections, of “acting in concert with the LDP.”

Renho said she would stand under the banner of “anti-LDP politics and a non-Koike approach in the Tokyo government.”

She also said that Koike’s project to give Tokyo residents aged 18 and under a ¥5,000 per month benefit, which started last fiscal year, was “an election campaign using public funds.”

Renho further suggested reducing the frequency of the projection maps on the outside of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, which started in February, and using the saved money to support the homeless. “I want our policies to help people in need,” she said.

Renho was a newsreader before becoming an MP and has experience as a minister. Her name has often been floated as a leading candidate for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, but both she and the CDPJ have been cautious about challenging Koike, who has overwhelming power to draw votes.

However, the CDPJ won all three House of Representatives midterm elections in April, and a CDPJ-endorsed candidate defeated an LDP-backed candidate in the Shizuoka gubernatorial election on Sunday.

Moreover, in Sunday’s by-election for Tokyo Assembly members in the Meguro Ward constituency, where two seats were up for grabs, Renho’s former secretary was elected with the most votes. The candidate supported by Koike was unsuccessful.

The CDPJ is optimistic about winning the Tokyo gubernatorial election and hopes to generate momentum toward a transition of power within the central government.

However, Renho won about 670,000 votes in her Tokyo constituency in the 2022 Upper House elections, significantly lower than the approximately 1.71 million votes she received in 2010. Some observers believe she has a name recognition disadvantage compared to Koike.

The CDPJ plans to offer Renho the same level of support as a candidate officially backed by the party.

In the meantime, Koike is carefully considering when she will announce her candidacy.

In an interview she gave on Monday after visiting the islands of Hachijojima and Oshima for inspections, Koike dodged the issue. “Several people have urged me to continue serving as governor of Tokyo, but I have not made any plans yet,” she said.

Koike was expected to receive requests on Tuesday to run for governor again from some Tokyo municipal heads, as well as from the Komeito Group in the Tokyo Assembly. The LDP group in the meeting was also expected to meet Koike and offer her support.

However, there is a growing sense of caution on Koike’s part about receiving support from the LDP, whose approval ratings are stagnant.

A senior member of Tomin First no Kai (Tokyo First Group), a regional political party that supports Koike, said: “People who hate the LDP’s politics support us. Working with the LDP would do us more harm than good.”

One reason for the LDP’s support offer is its desire to secure Koike’s cooperation in the Tokyo midterm elections on July 7, the same day as the gubernatorial election.

A senior member of the LDP’s Tokyo branch said: “We need to speed up the talks [with the Koike side] towards cooperation.”