Top focus in election: Will Koike run?

She already affects both at once so I don't see why she has to run for office. It's a realistic option to just prevent a majority in the lower house. It'll depend on if she wants to speak for it or is content for someone elected in her party to be a placeholder while she's governor

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, politically is fundamentally a paradox, a 'democratic deficit', defined by the process that any leader of a party should obtain a mandate, an endorsement from the electorate to govern.

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike is blagging, dictating policy from a cosy position, devoid of any encumbrance, liability, or any recourse to accountability.

Resign and run for office......

Here's how it's going to play out. There will be backdoor meetings over the weekend. Abe will praise her and promise her that in return for sitting out this round, he will promise the Party of Hope will become a coalition member in his government after the election, likely ditching Komeito. Also, as long as she does this and is willing to back his absolute wet dream of changing the Constitution and an extended term, he will back her as current Governor of Tokyo, and step down once the Olympics are over in 2020 and help ensure she takes power as PM thereafter. She will agree, and decide not to run, as long as he makes some flimsy promises in return, like hesitating on the tax increase, and promising once again for more daycares (which he'll fail on later). This way she keeps her role as Tokyo Governor until she seeks election as PM at the end of Abe's reign of power, and since they are both Nippon Kaigi that want the Constitution changed she will have no real beef against it. It'll look like an honest fight, but with both of them being the exact same it is win win, almost guaranteeing no other party gets any seats, thus also destroying any future opposition (since the cowards all want to jump ship and join one or the other... some forced to join Edano's self-proclaimed "reject party".

To smithinjapan...you are right.

Like Putin and Medvedev, a tandemocracy.

Because all the same.

Sooner o later, Koike will push conservative ideology with Abe and LDP.

Who cares, we have no say in who gets voted for.

She's all talk no walk, and Abe is as bent as a flag in the wind - the local voters havent got much choice but to stay with Abe - as change isnt the Japanese thing.

yup more of the same, Im not sure I would say, good or bad... but no different, the good people of this country are too busy just trying to make a living to pay their rent or mortgage.

These people live in a different world obsessed by their dreams of revisionism and rose tinted backward looking miss guided ideas about a time that never really existed.

Saw somewhere that Koike specifically mentioned being against foreign residents ever getting a say politically.. cool I guess it will be her at my door with my tax refund??? (its bizarre my workmates either think Im a citizen or I don't have to pay taxes and pension... oh no no... I get to pay, with no say)

love to use photoshop on the faces to create a dear leader.