Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike might be the most recognizable female politician in the nation’s history, and it's widely thought that she is en route to securing her third term in office in the gubernatorial election set for July 7 — even with challenges in the form of rival Renho and a record number of candidates.
Ever since she became governor in 2016 under the banner of “Tokyo Reform 1.0,” she has taken center stage in the nation’s politics.
“Looking back on my two terms over eight years, I have worked with all my might to protect the lives and livelihoods of the people of Tokyo — during this time I have implemented historic COVID-19 prevention methods and through it also held the Tokyo 2020 Games,” Koike said in her campaign kickoff speech on June 20.
But how did Koike — known for her green suit and penchant for borrowing terms from English, for example words derived from “wise-spending” and “fintech” — become governor to begin with, and how has she performed during her two terms?
Path to power
Like her strongest opponent Renho, Koike started her career as a television newscaster. It was in 1992, when the country was seeing the establishment of many new political parties, that she decided to move into politics and ran for a seat in the Upper House, following an invitation to do so from future Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa.
“At the time, the world was going through a dramatic change with the Gulf War, the bursting of the bubble economy and the end of the Cold War, yet Japan remained the same,” Koike told reporters on June 21.
“I doubted if Japan was going to be OK staying the way it was and decided to transition from being the one communicating movement (as a newscaster) to the one making the movement.”
She later moved over to the Lower House and, after switching between several minor parties, settled into the Liberal Democratic Party in 2002. Koike began to draw attention for breaking down barriers by becoming the first female politician to become the defense minister and the first woman to enter the LDP presidential election.
But her career really took off in 2016, when she ran for the role that would come to define her.
Koike said she was running in that year's Tokyo gubernatorial election as an LDP member even though the party was officially backing another candidate, and impressively managed to win, making history by becoming the first female Tokyo governor.
Championing the “Seven Zeros” — which later became 12 — she made somewhat outlandish but catchy promises such as having zero crowded trains and zero hay fever.
“Her initial victory was kind of a surprise,” explains Kenneth McElwain, a comparative politics professor at the University of Tokyo. “She won on the heels of the sense that she was being attacked by the old guys in the LDP and this was like a victory for new candidates, for women, and so on.”
Although Koike has run as an independent in gubernatorial elections, she founded a regional party, Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) in 2017 and served as its de facto leader — thus leaving the LDP. This gave her a platform away from the LDP.
She helped her new party win a majority of seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly in the assembly election the same year.
Later in 2017, she set up a new national party, Kibo no To (Party of Hope), which subsequently merged with the biggest opposition party at the time, the Democratic Party. That led many to speculate that Koike was perhaps eyeing a spot in national politics, even possibly attempting to become the nation’s first female prime minister. However, after Kibo no To experienced major losses in the Lower House election in October of that year, she stepped down as leader of the party.
She then returned her focus to the metropolitan government and cruised to a second term in 2020 amid the pandemic, a time when she was featured on the news almost daily in relation to the capital's COVID-19 strategies.
Successes and failures
In the last election, Koike's actions in the early stages of the pandemic represented a huge advantage for her. Although in 2024 this is no longer front of mind for voters, there are lingering benefits in terms of her public image due to her leadership on well-known strategies such as “san-mitsu” — the "3Cs" of confined spaces, crowds and close-contact settings.
The Tokyo Olympics, a key topic in the last election, also proved to be something of a positive for Koike.
“The Olympics were something that I think many people were opposed to until it happened,” notes McElwain. “Then in hindsight, I think most people were vaguely glad — they enjoyed it, or at least most Japanese people were happy.”
Although such flashy accomplishments are assets for Koike, many are doubtful of her ability to actually execute the policies she promises Tokyoites.
“Where did the promise of the Seven Zeros go?” Renho asked when announcing her candidacy last month, referring to Koike’s campaign pledge. “Caregiver turnover, overtime work, the utility poles, the disparity in the Tama district (between it and Tokyo's central 23 wards in terms of infrastructure), crowded trains — none of these have been reduced to zero."
Although improvements have been made in the past eight years in some areas such as reducing the putting down of pets and the number of children waiting for a spot in nurseries, data shows that little progress has been seen elsewhere, despite Koike saying that she is “on track” to execute the others.
In fact, in some areas, the situation has worsened during her term. For example, average overtime work and the turnover rate of workers in the nursing industry is going up (Koike had pledged that no one would have to quit work in order to care for their family).
“Regardless of if she is able to execute it or not, Koike (as a politician) is very good at appealing (to voters),” says political journalist Akiko Azumi. “There are times when there are no concrete thoughts behind (her campaign promises) but it sounds good on the surface and the appeal works really well on those who don’t read into it much.”
Another cloud that continues to hang over Koike concerns persistent questions over her academic record. Since she first ran for governor, sources close to her have alleged that her graduation document from Cairo University was falsified.
The scandal blew up during her second run for governor when “Jotei Koike Yuriko” ("Empress Yuriko Koike"), an expose on the alleged academic credentials fraud, was published. She was pressured into proving that she did indeed graduate, with Cairo University releasing a statement through the Egyptian Embassy backing her up, but that has not settled the matter in the eyes of some.
Nonetheless, what may be the biggest positive for Koike is that — regardless of whether people attribute this to her or not — Tokyo has become wealthier during her tenure, with the stock market rising and more investment going into business in the city.
Koike is attempting to capitalize on this economic upturn by promoting projects she has implemented such as SusHi Tech Tokyo, an annual event promoting sustainability and technology, as well as budget cuts amounting to ¥810 billion achieved due to her spending policies — although Renho says there has been no third-party review of this number.
“So why would you want to change course now, given that you're better off today than you were eight years ago?” McElwain says. “The default again is that most incumbent governors get reelected and she hasn't really screwed anything up, so in a way, the less interested people are in the election, the better she'll do.”
But Koike herself maintains that, despite her status as the incumbent, she is still a challenger at heart.
“I am not playing defense at all — I am a challenger,” she said June 21. “Right now, when times are changing drastically, I am attempting to pave the way for how Tokyo can be sustainable and high tech and how I can advance that with my policies — that is why I am always a challenger to the future.”
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