LDP leads Koike's party ahead of Tokyo assembly election: poll

What the hell Tokyo residents! The LDP have done nothing for you, screwed your city, enriched themselves, and still you want to vote for them! Everyone keeps saying that the LDP wins elections because of the country bumpkins who vote for them. But here our smart city cousins have a chance to make a difference, and they are still voting for those bums. I know that Koike has her warts, and used to be part of the LDP, but I really thought she was trying to help the people and the city. I guess, old habits are hard to break.

Is there another large metropolis anywhere in the world as conservative as Tokyo (or Osaka)? And the key takeaway for the ever dynamic DP, keep talking about school scandals since it's really boosting your numbers.

Seventeen percent of Tokyo residents responding to the telephone survey over the weekend said they would vote for the LDP, while 11% said they would support Tomin First no Kai (group that puts Tokyo residents first), for which Koike serves as special adviser.

Misleading title to say the least, 17%, ok it's a lead, but a more accurate one would be "Nearly 50% are undecided", but that doesnt make any money now does it?

Is there another large metropolis anywhere in the world as conservative as Tokyo (or Osaka)?

Tehran, Riyadh....etc etc etc.

Is there another large metropolis anywhere in the world as conservative as Tokyo (or Osaka)?

The Vatican, Dubai, Tehran, Singapore, Beijing, etc, are far more conservative than Tokyo and Osaka. For and example in the US, Salt Lake City and Dallas maybe.

I know there's a lot of love for Koike on here and she does seem to be interested in cleaner government but she was in the LDP until just last year and is still a member of Nippon Kaigi.

72% didn't decide! How useless is that

"The telephone survey covered 1,623 randomly selected households..."

Did they only talk to people who have (and answer) landlines? If so, they are probably skewing results unintentionally, by polling only older people.

Hopefully, the younger populace, the type who tend to live by mobile alone, will actually get out and vote.

For and example in the US, Salt Lake City and Dallas maybe.

Both have democratic mayors

I know there's a lot of love for Koike on here and she does seem to be interested in cleaner government but she was in the LDP until just last year and is still a member of Nippon Kaigi.

Very fair and good point, but you have to remember that most of the opposition was LDP at some point or another. Nippon Kaigi, though is an excellent point.  That is the one thing that still troubles me about her.  However, my gut feeling is that she joined the 2 organizations to further her political career, not so much out of her own beliefs.  Now, I could be wrong, but that's just how I'm reading it.  I do agree with the above posters in that I think she will win with a landslide.

To paraphrase George Galloway, the LDP and Tomin First are two cheeks of the same bottom.

If the people of Tokyo really want change they should vote for neither of those.

while 15% said employment and economic policies

Is there not supposed to be a severe labor shortage ?

or is the shortage in the rest of the country and not Tokyo.

As for what policies they want the Tokyo metropolitan government to prioritize, 36% cited measures related to public welfare and child-rearing support

To that end, I would like for government to quit trying to run child-rearing support businesses, entirely, and give us our money back.

Government has been a big failure, with many families struggling to even find ANY service, let alone quality service at a reasonable price.

A free, competitive market could hardly produce worse results. So leave the provision of service to the free market, and cut our taxes.

The government's role should be ensuring that low income families can also afford to obtain access to services too. It's assistance for the needy that our taxes should be focused on, not starting out from the proposition that everyone is needy and therefore government must provide services (at which it has proven to be so inefficient and poor at).

Some 44% said they do not support any particular party.

Perhaps it's because the parties are all offering slight variations on the same theme. Instead of choosing between different politicians who all want to run our own lives for us, I'd like to choose politicians who recognise that we want, and are perfectly capable of, running our own lives by ourselves.

In my experience the mindset of the average Japanese voter is to first find out who is going to win and then vote for them. Nobody wants to vote for a loser so an LDP victory becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I honestly don't believe Japanese voters understand what their job is as a voter

sf2k, yes I think that's a big part of the problem. The Japanese way is for people to try to understand how others feel and seek compromises. So who cares who one votes for, so long as they will do their best?

I like new-style politicians like Koike and (formerly when he was a politician) Hashimoto because they seem more interested in forcing things to be their way, rather than some compromise. Compromise means failure. What Japan needs is quality policies, no ifs or buts.

Thanks Educator60, I admit I didn't know that. Only in Japan can you play musical chairs with your political affiliation. Switching parties, starting new parties, running as a shadow independent when you're obviously a run of the mill conservative. One would think she'd cut all ties, having started her own party (Tomin First no Kai) and refusing to work with the LDP in the upcoming election. I should have known better. As it stands, she's just leading a rival faction.