Koike vows to 'reset Japan' with new party, won't run for election herself

Best of luck may you all kick the ldp into the gutter for good!!

What's the origin of the "FIGHT-O!!!" fist pump thing Japanese politicians do for the camera as religiously as schoolgirls with that stupid 'peace' sign?

If at this time we don't reset Japan, we won't be able to sufficiently protect our international competitiveness and national security,"

That is VERY true. Abenomics has been a failure and so has his foreign policy

There had been speculation that Koike would choose to run in the election herself, but she said she would remain in her position as governor.

I respect her for that. Unlike Abe, she is not trying to take advantage of the situation by running herself. She is staying the course as Tokyo Gov, and not shirking her responsibilities.

Koike's new party is staking out a policy space similar to that of the conservative LDP and the right-wing of the main opposition Democratic Party, a mixture of conservatives and liberals.

That very well might be her achilles heel. If she runs as a LDP light, she risks losing alot of progressive voters who just might not show up.

But her calls for open government, a freeze on a planned sales tax hike from 2019, an end to nuclear power and a promise to promote diversity give it a more populist tinge.

Not just populist, but also popular.

Koike has said she aimed to push reformist policies, open government and an end to reliance on nuclear power.

Sounds good to me.

She has also called for a freeze on a plan to raise the national sales tax to 10% from 8% in 2019.

Also sounds good to me.

Abe's decision to go to the polls is seen as an effort to take advantage of confusion in the opposition camp and an uptick in his support rates,

Seen as? IT IS. And that's not a reason to elect or reelect ANYONE to the highest office in the land.

Best of luck may you all kick the ldp into the gutter for good!!

Amen brother! As usual GW, your comments are spot on!

Koizumi-chan.

Good luck to her party, but her not running I think will put many voters off her party especially if there's a good number of them who are defectors from the DPJ. IMO she should stay clear of them

I can see in Japanese link pages that she left behind her official governor duty appointments to be at that party's campaign platform and many people are criticizing her very harshly saying she is not doing her governor's work. That will give her negative scores in this coming election. Well, I know that there are 3 vice-governors and every one of them will be in her place as I know every prefecture have the positions arranged that way. Unfortunately, there's nobody who has her power to confront PM Abe. I just hope she won't fail doing 2 things at the same time!

Chances of Koike's party winning in the coming elections on Oct 22 are very slim .She is uncertain of winning in the elections so she is not contesting election to save herself from the defeat and loss of prestige.

She's not really fundamentally different from the LDP, but then, when it comes to Japanese politics, unless you are talking about the Communist Party, they are all pretty much the same - many having split off of the various factions within the LDP, which contains as much variation within it's self as among the others.

Still, Abe represents the most hawkish and nationalistic elements of the LDP so I'm happy to see anyone stick it to him. Abe also represents the worst element common in Japanese politics - the "I belong here because my grand-daddies were here", never-did-a real-day-of-work-in-their-lives, born with a silver spoon, the third generation politicians. Koike is nationalistic and hawkish, but at least she doesn't have that pedigree of extreme entitlement.

And she's opposing raising the consumption tax.

Koike repeated promises to form a party without ties to vested interests in order to "reset Japan."

Interesting.

Bit of an anticlimax.

There had been speculation that Koike would choose to run in the election herself, but she said she would remain in her position as governor.

Well speculation she fuelled on Monday when she said she would lead her new party and challenge the LDP at the next election. Certainly didn't clarify she didn't want to get involved did she.

Yuriko Koike filed a trademark for "Party of Hope" to the Patent Office in February, and she found out yesterday that it was registered on September 1.

So this was conceived from an early stage.

This is so awesome! Look at her awesome new party with... the... same old career politician failures....

BUT! Koike is gonna kick butt cuz... she said she would... like she said she would with Olympic costs and...Tsukiji... And her great... sound bites...

Oohhhh yeah, that's right, I forgot. This is Japan, where politicians don't die, they just get recycled from party to party and new conference to news conference.

This is a bonafide card carrying member of the kaigi. Even if Abe succumbs to defeat, we'd have Abe 2.0 taking charge. Come on folks, wake up!!

If she won't actually stand for office herself, the key will be who will actually stand as a potential PM?

B.l. SharmaToday  01:25 pm JST

Chances of Koike's party winning in the coming elections on Oct 22 are very slim .

Winning a majority in the Diet? Well of course they are. The new party won't have candidates in every constituency.

She is uncertain of winning in the elections so she is not contesting election to save herself from the defeat and loss of prestige.

I would ask what makes you think that, but I notice that once you've written these comments extolling the virtues of the Dear Leader you have nothing else to add.

LDP will win as it has almost always, it's the size of the win that matters. Losing seats is a loss, losing many seats a catastrophe. It's always going to be LDP due to the unconstitutional vote disparity. Japan votes on familiarity not on policy.

It is time to call Silver Lion back. Only he can protect his beloved nation in the state of prolonged political crisis! With his bright gaze, honest heart and mending palm!

A rogues' gallery of rightist retreads led by a Nippon Kaigi headbanger.

How refreshing.

She talks about phasing out nuclear electrics, which will be a big point in opposing vested interests.

Nobody expects her to publicly think about somethink like universal income to all,...is that still leftist thinking?

Just protect the moneys and you are a suitable candidate. Good luck

I go with ABE no matter what u guys speak about LDP , He had these scandal which pissed me off as well

But Still he is the strongest leader we had at the moment in our country and i vote for ABE on October 22 !!!

Fine to freeze the tax hike but what about the deficit spending.

@taj. aAbe is the fifth generation politician.

The first one, succeeded to modernize Japan by winning against massive Shogun Forces. Abe was helping the boarding house owner in Long Beach when he was attending USC. He was hidden from Japanese right wing assassin that failed too kill. his maternal grandpa.

When Japanese female politicians stop fighting each other, Koike has a good chance to defeat Abe and LDP.

If you look into it, the extra sales tax is basically an "Olympic" tax to pay for all the unneeded contruction.

A former defense minister, the 64-year-old Koike is a Middle East expert who speaks fluent Arabic