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© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.LDP headed toward big defeat in Tokyo assembly election
By Linda Sieg TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
35 Comments
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Ricky Kaminski
Vote people vote. Yes, that does include under 60 year olds too.
pacint
Hoping for a Koike win. Komeito is in an alliance with her. No more LDP majority.
Schopenhauer
Was not Koike a veteran politician of LDP?
BertieWooster
But Abe's 4-1/2 years has been itself a poor showing. Poor showing is putting it mildly.
Please, as the crowd chanted in Akihabara yesterday, "Abe, quit!" And take the rest of the LDP with you!
cucashopboy
The results are beginning to come in, and it looks like a very bad night for LDP with Koike predicted to have the largest number of seats. I'll drink to that.
UK9393
Above a ten point difference in Chiyoda Ward... Brilliant. LDP. Losing Dreadfully Party.
gogogo
If Koike wins nothing will ever get decided.
UK9393
Kita Ward, 16% difference. Beautiful.
UK9393
@Gogo, ‘if’, ????, she’s WON. Big time.
UK9393
Shibuya Ward. Boom! 37% to 23%... The Green Juggernaut can’t be stopped!
ListenTheTruth
Abe is going to get stomach pains. He’ll be out of the job by... the next general election. Maybe he can get a job as the janitor at a veterinary university?
pacint
Great stuff if she wins kiss the LDP/Komeito coalition(abusive) bye-bye.
Yubaru
Gimmie a break, "big" defeat? More like of "historical" nature here. The LDP is getting hammered big time, and the news pundits are calling it a vote about Abe as well.
How fast the pendulum swings.....
mataka
So excited to watch the vile disgusting Abe and the arrogant smirk wiped off his face this evening! I cannot begin to describe how elated my family are that Abe and the other Lying Dishonest Politicians are being so overwhelmingly defeated in this election. Media are reporting that many people while not being strong supporters of Koike, have been voting strategically for her Tomin First party to oust Abe's cronies from the Tokyo Assembly. This pattern will be repeated at a national level soon and I am convinced Abe can then finally be prosecuted for his role in recent illegal payments over schools. He is more likely than ever to be jailed. Good news.
IloveCoffee
People want change. But they're not going to get one with Koike. She is part of the same old status quo.
pacint
While not residing in Tokyo per se local results are good.
Close friends with local Komeito.
pacint
She might not be the ultimate answer but the change/start is there. Rest is up in the air.
pacint
Wow. First 39 Komeito 12 LDP 1. (MX)
pacint
First with her affiliates looks set to earn 64 seats(now 52).
Scrote
It's good to see dishonest Abe lose heavily. I hope this signals the end of his corrupt reign, but I'm afraid the Japanese people have short memories. Expect lots of North Korean scaremongering next week and frantic commercials warning of the danger of missile attacks aimed at cowering the electorate back into line.
pacint
Drpends 64 out of 127 is the majority LDP is not a contender.
Of course less than 64 means LDP still has a say.
smithinjapan
Abe will, of course, refuse to take responsibility and fall on the sword for this. He will claim that his past victories are a mandate by the majority to pass laws the same majority are against, but he won't say this is a mandate for him to quit -- spoken DIRECTLY by the people against him and his policies.
But I guarantee this is what he will say: "I have heard what the people are saying, and I promise from here on to be transparent in my dealings and prevent any miscommunications and scandals from happening in the future (even though I didn't do anything!). I will not step down, as I believe it is important for me to continue with my mandate to change the Constitution and make you understand that it is necessary later."
Well, okay, he'll be slightly less obvious, but that's what he'll say, more or less. He is closer than any PM in history to getting the Constitution changed for the wingers, and he is most certainly NOT going to quit before it is done. After, I am quite sure he will pat himself on the back and let someone else take over (the next in line and biggest suck up), but not until.
GW
Wow, I was going to have a beer yasumi today, but may have to have a couple to toast Koike san!!!! Twist my rubber arm!!!
smithinjapan
This KIND OF explains why the wingers were out in full force, black trucks blaring imperial songs and one even some radio drama about visiting Yasukuni and sacrificing yourself for the emperor. Hope those clowns take a good, hard look in the mirror when they realize that everything they wasted their day driving up and down the Midosuji was in vain.
Yubaru
As I wrote in a previous post on a different thread, Inada is being set up as the fall guy, she made the stupid SDF comment regarding who to vote for, and will be sacrificed to keep dear leader in place.
Abe will make all sorts of excuses, but the fact is his arrogance is getting to people!
Simon Foston
RecklessToday 09:41 pm JST
Can't you? I can.
However I cannot recall any of this progress you're referring to. He clearly has a knack for winning elections but he can thank his family name, connections and money, the innate conservatism of elderly rural voters in over-represented LDP strongholds and the lack of effective competition rather than any personal merits. Which he has absolutely none of.
Why? No one in any regular job would be able to get away with doing terrible work by saying his predecessors were even more useless. Why should Abe?
pacint
Intrresting no party here can claim majority without Komeito.
Makes you think. Who holds the real power.
mountainpear
Don't be fooled! Koike is a wolf in sheep's clothing. She is cut from exactly the same cloth as Abe. Just the packaging is more attractive. From a privileged background. A conservative nationalist who supports text book reform and visits Yasukuni yearly. Nippon Kaigi member. She also supports changing Article 9 of the constitution.
ListenTheTruth
Yamanashi of course makes a very good point. YET it’s good to see her win, even if it is same as the old boss in terms of policy. Scary stuff. She was a member of the Diet members' group to promote Yasukuni Shrine visits, led by Yoshinobu Shimamura, and goes to pay her respects to the war dead at the shrine on War-End Day, 15 August, almost every year.
During the 2008 LDP leadership election, she pledged to make Russia return the four disputed islands to Japan if she was elected as prime minister. Yeah, well good luck with that one!
Yoshitsune
Koike is awful.
Abe is awful.
I do hope the awful Inada gets hung out to dry, at least.
smithinjapan
yubaru: I know Inada is being set up to take the fall (she deserves to fall, but not all the blame), but Abe also JUST said he wished her to stay on only two days ago.
Simon Foston
smithinjapanToday 11:25 am JST
Possibly he didn't know just how much of a hammering the LDP were going to get, or thought that to say otherwise would sound defeatist. I wouldn't be surprised if he's wishing differently now.