LDP Suffers Hit in Tokyo Assembly Election, Cedes Top Spot to Tomin First Party

Yomiuri Shimbun

5 hours ago

The Liberal Democratic Party suffered a major setback in Sunday's Tokyo metropolitan assembly election, its seats in the assembly falling to an all-time low at 21 seats. The LDP also surrendered its position as the largest party in the assembly to Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites first group).
With 127 seats up for grabs in the election, voters punished the LDP for its failure to tackle inflation and its recent financial scandals. After the results were announced, the LDP also endorsed three unaffiliated candidates who won seats.
Meanwhile, Tomin First no Kai reclaimed its place as the largest party in the Tokyo assembly, with its candidates winning 31 seats. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan also increased its seat count. The Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito, which previously had no representation in the assembly, both won multiple seats.
The Tokyo assembly election looks certain to affect the House of Councillors election that will soon follow. The race saw 295 candidates, the highest number since the seat count in the Tokyo assembly was set at 127, compete in 42 electoral districts.
The focus of the race was whether the LDP would be able to keep its position as the largest party, and whether a group of political parties supporting Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike — namely the LDP, Tomin First no Kai and Komeito — would maintain its majority.
The LDP did not endorse six members who had served as secretary general of the party caucus in the assembly as they were found to have improperly reported revenue from political fundraising parties. That left the party only endorsing 42 candidates, far fewer than in the previous Tokyo assembly election.
Due in part to deep-seated discontent with the party, over its politics-and-money scandals and its handling of surging prices, all LDP candidates in electoral districts where there was only one seat up for grabs lost their race. After the votes were counted, the party endorsed an unaffiliated candidate who won in a district in Tokyo's southern islands.
'We got poor ratings from the people of Tokyo,' said Shinji Inoue, chairman of the Federation of Tokyo Metropolitan Liberal Democratic Party Branches, on Sunday night.
Tomin First no Kai fielded 37 candidates and played up its close ties with Tokyo's governor, who serves as a special advisor to the regional party.
Thanks to Koike's popularity, the party attracted support from a wide range of voters. It claimed three electoral districts where there was only one seat to win, and also took seats in the districts including Nakano Ward and Kodaira.
Komeito sought to have all its candidates win seats for the ninth consecutive Tokyo assembly election and so narrowed its roster down to 22 candidates, one less than the seats it held before the election was announced. But three of its candidates — two in Ota Ward and one in Shinjuku Ward — failed to secure a spot in the assembly.
However, as Tomin First no Kai was able to grab more seats, the total number held by the parties supporting the governor will assure a majority in the assembly.
The Japanese Communist Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan pushed their criticisms of the LDP's scandals and Koike's management of the Tokyo government. While the CDPJ won 17 seats, the JCP fell to 14, down five from before the election campaign. The DPFP won nine seats in such districts as Katsushika Ward. Sanseito won three.
On Monday, senior members of the LDP and Komeito commented on their poor showings in the election.
LDP Policy Research Council Chairperson Itsunori Onodera said in the morning that the party had not been able to firm up the support it needed. Looking ahead to the upper house election, he said, 'We will tout our economic and other key policies without wavering on our principles.'
At a pre-dawn press conference, Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito said, 'We didn't quite do enough to tout our policies.'
Also on Monday, the Tokyo Metropolitan Election Administration Commission announced that 47.59% of voters turned out for the election. That was up by 5.2 percentage points from the last Tokyo assembly election in 2021, when voter turnout hit its second-lowest point on record.