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2014/02/11

  On February 9th., former health minister, TV -presentor, Yoichi Masuzoe has won the election for Tokyo governor by some margin. The night before the voting day, the heaviest snow in 45 years covered Tokyo area, which may have discouraged the voters from going to the polls for Tokyo governor, so that the votor trunout was around 46 percent, the third lowest in history. The number of the floating voters didn't increase, on the other hand, the organized, blocked votes dominated this race overwhelmingly.


To begin with, let's take a look at the result of Tokyo governor race , 2014

Turnout                     4,930,251 (46.14%)

Candidate           Yoichi Masuzoe/ Kenji Utsunomiya/ Morihiro Hosokawa/ Toshio Tamogami  
Popular vote(%) 2,112,979(42.86%) / 982,595(19.93%) /  956,063(19.39%) /610,865(12.39%)     
Supported by         LDP, NK         / JDP,SDP,GJ      / DPF, PLP, UP    /    ISS

* I skip the rest details under 4th ranking of 16 candidates

The major campaign issue the mass-media in Japan had set up as slogan election was "Nuclear Phase Out". But Masuzoe  defeated two candidates who both promised to end nuclear power.  2nd came Kenji Utsunomiya, a human rights lawyer, former head of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, and the 3rd came former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa. The anti-nuclear camp was divided between both two candidates who are opposed to use of nuclear power. So some media are eager to report that the ballot was the test for Japanese' public opinion on nuclear plants, and that either might have won this race if only the anti-nuclear votes had been united. Comparing the number of the votes, Masuzoe won 2.1 million votes, more than the combined total of his two nearest rivals. Indeed all the votes put together wouldn't be enough ,but it was close. Too close.  If Koizumi hadn't had Hosokawa run for Tokyo governor with him backing, Tokyo governer Utsunomiya might have been born... Koizumi succeeded in persuading Hosokawa run for Tokyo governor. Koizumi is not what he used to be, but his speech still has the power to fascinate some people.  We could avoid the worst case scenario, owing to these former ministers, That's Koizumi's target, I guess.


Tamogami was my ideal of Tokyo governor. He is a retired General and former Chief of Staff of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. His name seemed little known to the world before entering Tokyo governor race. Perhaps some people might know he was sacked in 2008, for  insisting in  his paper , Japan was not a World War  II aggressor . ( In english version, refer to this . )  Or some first might come to know his name Tamogami, declaring  his candidacy,  when Ishihara, former Tokyo governor backed him.  With his policies,  I support him.  And his experience in the military could work well in his leadership. It is a pity that he couldn't win.  But there is no crying for the result. Look at bright side. In this race, he got approx. 610,000 votes, which were given by those who are not subject to the control of the mass media in Japan.  Desperately short  for winning, but 610,000 is a considerable number, isn't it ?  The number of  voters, those who are free from organiaztions  is 610,000 , in spite of the heavy snow.

This isn't over yet. It's a start.



Masuzoe appealed to voters by identifying himself with Abe's relatively successful economic policies, which have set off a Japanese stock rally, and by promising a successful 2020 Tokyo Olympics.



by wakeup4japan | 2014-02-12 01:10