Yuriko Koike Wins Second Term as Tokyo Governor Ahead of Olympics - The Wall Street Journal

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Yuriko Koike is one of the few women at the top level of Japanese politics.

Photo: /Associated Press

By

Alastair Gale

• Biography
• @AlastairGale
• alastair.gale@wsj.com

Updated July 5, 2020 11:43 am ET

TOKYO—Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said she would push ahead with planning for a simplified Olympics next summer after winning re-election to a new four-year term, despite public concern about holding the Games during a pandemic.

The landslide victory for Ms. Koike, 67 years old, furthers the career of one of the few women at the top level of Japanese politics. With nearly all the votes counted, official results showed she won 60% of the vote. Her nearest rival, a candidate backed by the biggest opposition party, won 14%.

Ms. Koike, a former television newscaster, has won public credit in recent months for her appearances in regular internet and TV broadcasts asking people to stay home and businesses to reduce operations to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

Like many countries in East Asia, Japan has avoided levels of illness and death from Covid-19 seen in Western Europe and the U.S. but hasn’t imposed a strict lockdown.

Ms. Koike has also been a central figure in planning for the Olympics and is keen for them to go ahead after they were postponed to the summer of 2021 because of the virus. She faces growing public skepticism over the wisdom of holding the delayed Games, however, as infections have picked up again.

On Sunday, Tokyo reported 111 new cases, the fourth successive day above 100 after new cases fell to a few dozen each day from early May. Since the pandemic began, around one-third of infections in Japan have been in Tokyo.

Three recent opinion polls have shown a slight majority of Tokyo residents think the Olympics should be canceled or postponed again. One of Ms. Koike’s main challengers in the election campaigned on a pledge to scrap the Games.

Declaring victory, Ms. Koike said she would work to “guarantee a safe and secure Olympics” and “minimize the additional costs of the Games.”

Olympic organizers say they will start to draw up measures to deal with the virus from the autumn, which could include changes to spectator numbers.

The delay to the Games will also add as much as several billion dollars to the cost of the event, much of which will likely be funded by taxpayers.

The Tokyo metropolitan government has spent $5.6 billion on building new venues and refurbishing old facilities for the Olympics.

Yoshiro Mori, president of the Japanese organizing committee for the Tokyo Olympics, welcomed Ms. Koike’s re-election. “We are aiming for a simplified Games befitting a new era,” Mr. Mori said. “I believe that Gov. Koike’s approach is the same as ours.”

In contrast to Ms. Koike’s popularity boost from her handling of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has suffered in the polls from missteps and U-turns. Mr. Abe’s term as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ends next September, and he has said he intends to step down then, which would also spell the end his term as prime minister.

Ms. Koike left the LDP in 2017 and ran as an independent in the gubernatorial race, but she has been mentioned as a potential successor to Mr. Abe. She would have to leave the governor’s post and return to Parliament to be eligible to become prime minister.

Write to Alastair Gale at alastair.gale@wsj.com

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