A fast-growing challenge by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, often floated as the nation's first possible female prime minister, to Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc has highlighted the risk of his gamble on a snap poll as she tries to replicate a historic defeat of his party.
Abe called the Oct. 22 election in the hope his improved ratings and a struggling opposition would help his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition keep its majority in the Lower House, where it now holds a two-thirds supermajority.
But Abe's bet now looks increasingly shaky, given growing support for Koike's fledgling Kibo no To (Party of Hope) — launched this week — and the opposition Democratic Party's move to have its candidates leave the party and run on her ticket.