Tokyo Report

Abe’s LDP Loses Big in Tokyo Metropolitan Elections: Why That Matters

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Tokyo Report

Abe’s LDP Loses Big in Tokyo Metropolitan Elections: Why That Matters

Governor Yuriko Koike’s new Tokyo Citizens First party takes a big majority in Japan’s capital.

Abe’s LDP Loses Big in Tokyo Metropolitan Elections: Why That Matters
Credit: Wikimedia Commons/ 江戸村のとくぞう

On July 2, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered a historic defeat in the Tokyo metropolitan elections. Though on one level, the election was about how Tokyoites felt about Governor Yuriko Koike’s year in the governor’s office so far, on another level, it was a condemnation of the LDP’s “arrogance” in the past months. Abe accepted the results as a “very severe judgment” on his administration.

The LDP has been under fire for Japan’s peacekeeping operation in South Sudan, and the way the party shut down debate on a controversial anti-conspiracy bill to get it passed before the summer recess. Abe has also been personally accused of being involved in two separate favoritism scandals, though he has denied any wrongdoing on both counts. Abe’s support rate slid down to 38 percent last weekend.

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