The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was thrown into confusion August 8 prior to its first session after the July election over an attack by the Japanese Communist Party on the Liberal Democrat candidate standing for assembly president
The start of the session, scheduled for 1 p.m., was delayed until 3:30 p.m. because the JCP demanded that Kozo Tanaka, the LDP candidate for assembly president, explain an article that appeared in the August 8 issue of the Japanese-language daily the Mainichi Shimbun. The Mainichi reported that Tanaka had presented an expensive orchid, costing about 20,000 yen, to nearly all 54 LDP assembly members elected in the July election, in an apparent attempt to win support for his bid to become metropolitan assembly president.
The JCP claimed that this incident casts doubts on the process by which Tanaka was chosen as the LDP candidate. This prompted a review by all parties on the selection of candidates of the assembly's presidency.
Tanaka refused to explain his position regarding the article and denied that the incident was related to the vote. He was eventually elected by 83 votes, mainly from the LDP and Komei, but as many as 43 assembly members, including those of the Democratic Party of Japan, cast a blank ballot. All but one of the assembly's 127 members attended the session.
"(The flowers) were to celebrate members elected. It has nothing to do with the election of assembly president," Tanaka told a press conference after being elected. The JCP is the second largest party in the assembly after winning 26 seats in the last election. It has also been in sharp confrontation with the LDP and Komei over selecting an assembly vice president.