Koike apologizes but sticks to party head post after election defeat

what about abe's arrogance for the kindergarten and veternarian school scandals? the man believes he's above the law, while koike was just trying to make sure the members of her party spoke with one voice. sometimes i just don't understand japan or japanese culture.

The media wolves are at the door. Don't blame her for her loss. Blame the pathetic apathy of the 50% of Japanese who couldn't be bothered getting off their sofas to vote!

Wouldn't it hurt her image if she quit so quickly?

she didn't lose. she is same as Abe, so she won. japan lost.

Considering the speed the party was formed to elections, this result was unavoidable. She shouldn't necessarily disband the party, but purge most members and start over again as a grassroots organization instead of just hosting a mix of people from other political parties that didn't excite the voters at all. Due to the snap election she never really had the chance to be a contender, but hopefully by the next election there'll be something worth voting for.

How can going from 0 people in the Diet to 35 (?) be considered a “loss”? Is Edano going to resign as president of his non-party after “losing” 35+ people in the Diet? The Japanese media seems to be controlled by the LDP oyaji.

Really just a lesson to not make a party so close to an election.

Don't know what it does for her, LDP-A vs LDP-B wasn't much of a choice? But it really helped the creation of the CDJP, by dumping all the also-ran conservatives.

CDPJ

She is the same product like Abe, just different package.

koike was just trying to make sure the members of her party spoke with one voice

Exactly. Those Japanese voters who were more concerned about whether Koike kissed up to those excluded members from the dysfunctional DP party who didn't share Party of Hope's policy position, than the policies on offer from Party of Hope and the CDPJ, simply don't understand what democracy is, or how it is supposed to work.

Democracy is however not a Japanese construct - like a lot of imported western things the Japanese messed with it and put their own slant on it. But in the case of a democracy, the Japanese adoption is a bastardization that makes the whole exercise pointless.

Until people vote for the policies they want, Japan will continue to be poorly ruled. Keep the group-think, buddy-buddy aspects of Japanese culture out of democracy, or otherwise you might as well just call what Japan has something like the Chinese communist party rule system. In practice, that's what Japan has, with the bureaucracy in control and almost uninterrupted rule by the LDP.

A flaccid media reliant on being in "the club" a non combative or investigating skills set means politicians regularly dodge the most simple of questions.

She knew there was no chance of winning, otherwise she would have run instead of sending others out to lose.

Asking her to resign from a party formed in very short time to CONFRONT the ldp is pretty stupid, but not surprising!

They started from zero, they should stay to course.

marcelitoToday  04:18 pm JST

nakanoguy.....agreed.

I dint think she is a quitter si expect her to stay the course. Hopefully she learned the lesson and will cooperate with Edano for the 2019 election to kick Abe,s butt then.

If Edano's smart he will have nothing at all to do with her. The CDPJ had quite a good election, all things considered, and that's due in part to being excluded from the Hope Party - which I can see the logic behind. Opposition liberals and conservatives haven't been able to work together to get rid of Abe up until now and they won't do any better in future. They should stick to their principles and stay well away from each other.

Koike undecided again... at least she is consistent

@gogogo exactly right. they formed this party a few months ago, put Koike's face on every poster but said she is not running, then said if they win a majority they do not know who they will put at PM, all the while she neglected her mayoral duties in Tokyo, now a few months later after getting 50 people in there they might abandon them by disbanding the party?

Monkey politics she deserved to lose

Abe and Koike are true couple, both are shameless, selfish and incompetent. Abe wasted Japanese democracy while Koike wasted Japanese hope. Abe is going to weaken Japanese peace while Koike is going to ruin Japanese Olympics. The difference is also obvious, Abe still holds onto power after years bad management of govt policies, while Koike still wants to stick to her post after a few weeks political hypes. Japan deserves a better govt, quite honestly.

Most who didn't vote were ok with the status quo, some may have been disillusioned, but few were angry with Abe, or else they would have voted. So don't believe the JT and other media that purveyed the blame-it-on-the-typhoon view that if turnout rate had been higher, the opposition would have performed better. Unless you believe that a plurality of Japanese people have been mostly idiots in the last five years, you need to explain why Abe has been successful, at least more successful than the DP or its newest incarnation CDPJ, for what is an incredibly long period in Japanese electoral politics, in spite of some alleged shenanigans with the schools thing and some of his much less popular policies like reactivating nuke plants.

xin xinOct. 25  11:52 pm JST

Most who didn't vote were ok with the status quo, some may have been disillusioned, but few were angry with Abe, or else they would have voted. 

Or maybe where they lived it would hardly have made any difference. For instance I couldn't imagine anyone overturning Abe's own majority in Yamaguchi, can you? Likewise, the LDP may have been booted out in the neighbouring constituency to me, but it's not going to happen where I live any time soon. Too many old country folk just vote for them out of inertia.

Unless you believe that a plurality of Japanese people have been mostly idiots in the last five years...

Well, now that you come to mention it...

...you need to explain why Abe has been successful, at least more successful than the DP or its newest incarnation CDPJ, for what is an incredibly long period in Japanese electoral politics, in spite of some alleged shenanigans with the schools thing and some of his much less popular policies like reactivating nuke plants.

Mainly by exploiting the DPJ's poor record in government for all it's worth, I think. A lot of people will admit that he just seems like the least worst option - although he's actually the worst by far.

Not only did Koike's new party fall far short of toppling the LDP, it even captured fewer seats than the 54 won by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. The CDPJ, led by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and now the largest opposition force in the lower house, was created by liberal members of the Democratic Party whom Koike rejected.

Karma, right Yuriko?