Japan’s ruling party trounced in Tokyo regional election
By
Ben McGrath
7 July 2017
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was soundly defeated in the July 2 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections in what is broadly seen as a referendum on the policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet. The outcome suggests trouble for his party ahead of national parliamentary elections next year.
Voters were choosing members for the assembly in the Tokyo metropolitan area, which includes the capital city itself and surrounding suburbs, home to approximately 38 million people. Tomin First no Kai (Tokyo Citizens First Association), a regional party, seized 49 seats. Its electoral ally Komeito won 23. A handful of independents, who joined Tomin First after the election, also won seats, giving the bloc 79 seats out of 127.
The LDP took only 23 seats, down from 57 and well below previous record lows of 38 seats in 1995 and 2009. The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) won 19 seats, while the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) took a paltry 5, underlining its complete disarray. Voter turnout was higher than in the previous election, with 51.3 percent of voters going to the polls compared to 43.5 percent in 2013.
Significantly Komeito, a junior partner in Abe’s government, aligned with Tomin First, rather than the widely disliked LDP, in the Tokyo election. The LDP has been reliant on Komeito, which promotes itself as a Buddhist, pacifist party, to push through laws that make deep inroads into democratic rights and remove restrictions on the country’s military, or Self-Defense Forces (SDF).
LDP heavyweight and former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba exploited the party’s losses to question Abe’s legitimacy, saying, “We must recognize this as an historic defeat,” he…