Tokyo votes today in a local assembly election that has taken on national prominence..
Tokyo votes today in a local assembly election that has taken on national prominence.
For one, the ballot is seen as a gauge of how recent scandals have impacted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) .
Top officials, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, are concerned the party will suffer a hammering from voters electing 127 assemblymen who will decide on laws that apply within Tokyo for the next four years.
At a rally in the electronics district of Akihabara last night, Mr Abe was heckled, with calls for him to resign. It was the second consecutive day he was heckled while stumping for LDP candidates. At an earlier rally last Wednesday, he apologised in his capacity as LDP chief and said: “A castle that takes three years to build can be destroyed in a day.”
Opinion polls show the LDP will likely lose its majority in the assembly to a new force – the Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) that was formed in January and run by popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike. She quit the LDP last month.
This is the stiffest political challenge the LDP has faced in the Japanese capital since 2009, when it lost its majority to the then Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) .
