Japan’s national elections did not quite live up to the expectations of Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. In late September, when she formed an upstart national political party, the Party of Hope, to challenge the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, it looked as though she was positioned to do the unthinkable: unseat Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and become the first woman to serve as Japanese prime minister.
But Koike stopped short of mounting a head-on campaign against Abe. Early this month, she declined to stand as the head of the Party of Hope in the October 22 election. Her decision may have helped Abe to rally supporters and maintain the LDP’s super-majority rule. Abe crushed the opposition, thanks in part to smart tactics—he called the election a year earlier than it was scheduled—and also in part to the hard line he has held against North Korean missile tests.
