On February 9th, Tokyo held its gubernatorial election to replace its former governor Naoki Inose (who resigned on December 24th last year), resulting in the election of Yoichi Masuzoe.
Previously, Yoichi Masuzoe served as a member of the House of Councillors (the lower house of the Japanese Diet) and as Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare. He often appeared in the media through political debate variety shows during his time in the House of Councillors. His long career of media exposure and name recognition gave him a head start for the election, which turned out to be a great advantage, and he was supported by the current leading national party, the Liberal Democratic Party. Furthermore, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Masuzoe share opinions of the most significant issues in Japanese domestic politics today: nuclear energy policy.
Abe has stated that local governments should not involve themselves with nuclear policy making. The issue concerns the entire population, thus the national government is the one who is responsible. Abe emphasized this point during the gubernatorial election in Tokyo, but many candidates rebelled against his demand and continued to propose their anti-nuclear pledges. Out of several anti-nuclear candidates, Morihiro Hosokawa drew the most media attention. He was a former Prime Minister of Japan, from August 1993 to April 1994, and he ran in this election with the massive support by an another former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was in office from August 2001 to September 2006.
Hosokawa mainly focused his campaign his anti-nuclear policies, while Masuzoe avoided the subject. When Masuzoe was asked about his view on nuclear policy, he took a passive position by saying a “gradual reduction” of nuclear dependency is needed. Following Abe's orders, Masuzoe tried to leave nuclear issues off the plate, and instead focus on problems such as welfare and economic reform, which is a hot-button topic in elections in Japan, a country with a growing senior population.
One of the defining characteristic of Liberal Democratic Party is its large cadre of loyal supporters, especially corporations, farmers, public workers, and the medical industry. These determined supporters are likely to attend elections and vote for LDP candidates more than any other party supporters. There is a trend in Japanese elections in general that LDP has an advantage in elections with a lower percentage of voter turnout. Recent Japanese elections have faced a crucial problem of lower voter turnout of younger voters. This leaves the conventional LDP supporters and elderly the majority of voters, and the outcome is that the Japanese government becoming hesitant of implementing change even at the most obvious transitional point. This general turnout scenario happened during the Tokyo gubernatorial election this week, which led LDP-supported Masuzoe to become the new governor of Tokyo.
The Tokyo governorship is not the same as other Japanese city governorships. The position is highly influential in national politics. The former governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, attempted to purchase part of Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which led to the ongoing tensions in Sino-Japanese relations. Tokyo's government owns 1.20 percent of the stock of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and is the fourth largest stockholder of the company. Many political analysts believe that Masuzoe's passive stance on nuclear issues will facilitate Abe's pro-nuclear policy in Niigata and Fukushima—where TEPCO owns 17 nuclear power plants in total. The gubernatorial election in Tokyo once again proved that the framework of Japanese politics and the lack of youth engagement in politics are holding back Japan.
a global affairs media network
Video Wednesday: Pro-Nuclear Candidate Yoichi Masuzoe Elected as Tokyo's Governor
February 19, 2014
On February 9th, Tokyo held its gubernatorial election to replace its former governor Naoki Inose (who resigned on December 24th last year), resulting in the election of Yoichi Masuzoe.
Previously, Yoichi Masuzoe served as a member of the House of Councillors (the lower house of the Japanese Diet) and as Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare. He often appeared in the media through political debate variety shows during his time in the House of Councillors. His long career of media exposure and name recognition gave him a head start for the election, which turned out to be a great advantage, and he was supported by the current leading national party, the Liberal Democratic Party. Furthermore, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Masuzoe share opinions of the most significant issues in Japanese domestic politics today: nuclear energy policy.
Abe has stated that local governments should not involve themselves with nuclear policy making. The issue concerns the entire population, thus the national government is the one who is responsible. Abe emphasized this point during the gubernatorial election in Tokyo, but many candidates rebelled against his demand and continued to propose their anti-nuclear pledges. Out of several anti-nuclear candidates, Morihiro Hosokawa drew the most media attention. He was a former Prime Minister of Japan, from August 1993 to April 1994, and he ran in this election with the massive support by an another former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who was in office from August 2001 to September 2006.
Hosokawa mainly focused his campaign his anti-nuclear policies, while Masuzoe avoided the subject. When Masuzoe was asked about his view on nuclear policy, he took a passive position by saying a “gradual reduction” of nuclear dependency is needed. Following Abe's orders, Masuzoe tried to leave nuclear issues off the plate, and instead focus on problems such as welfare and economic reform, which is a hot-button topic in elections in Japan, a country with a growing senior population.
One of the defining characteristic of Liberal Democratic Party is its large cadre of loyal supporters, especially corporations, farmers, public workers, and the medical industry. These determined supporters are likely to attend elections and vote for LDP candidates more than any other party supporters. There is a trend in Japanese elections in general that LDP has an advantage in elections with a lower percentage of voter turnout. Recent Japanese elections have faced a crucial problem of lower voter turnout of younger voters. This leaves the conventional LDP supporters and elderly the majority of voters, and the outcome is that the Japanese government becoming hesitant of implementing change even at the most obvious transitional point. This general turnout scenario happened during the Tokyo gubernatorial election this week, which led LDP-supported Masuzoe to become the new governor of Tokyo.
The Tokyo governorship is not the same as other Japanese city governorships. The position is highly influential in national politics. The former governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, attempted to purchase part of Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, which led to the ongoing tensions in Sino-Japanese relations. Tokyo's government owns 1.20 percent of the stock of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and is the fourth largest stockholder of the company. Many political analysts believe that Masuzoe's passive stance on nuclear issues will facilitate Abe's pro-nuclear policy in Niigata and Fukushima—where TEPCO owns 17 nuclear power plants in total. The gubernatorial election in Tokyo once again proved that the framework of Japanese politics and the lack of youth engagement in politics are holding back Japan.
