Yoshihide Suga, Japan's prime minister, wears a protective face mask while speaking from behind a transparent screen during an audit committee session at the upper house of parliament in Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, June 7, 2021. (PHOTO / BLOOMBERG)
Residents headed to the polls in Tokyo on Sunday for a metropolitan assembly vote that could provide clues to how Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his ruling party will fare in a general election expected after this month’s Olympics.
Polls opened at 7 am Sunday and will close at 8 pm in the battle for power in the 127-seat metro assembly representing the nearly 14 million residents of the Japanese capital. The election comes less than three weeks before the opening of the games, which are strongly backed by Suga, despite widespread concern about staging the global sports spectacle during a pandemic.
The election comes less than three weeks before the opening of the games, which are strongly backed by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, despite widespread concern about staging the global sports spectacle during a pandemic
Suga’s Liberal Democratic Party currently has 25 seats in the assembly, compared with the 45 held by Tokyoites First, a local party formed by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, who now serves as an adviser. The Constitutional Democratic Party, the main opposition force at national level, controls 8 seats.
Signs of softening of public's opposition to holding the Tokyo Olympics haven't translated into higher support for Suga, with approval levels in both polls at their lowest since he took office in September.
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Gains in the assembly would be good news for Suga, whose party suffered three by-election defeats in a single day in April, and could be taken as a sign of political stability by markets. Suga has seen his approval rating slump to its lowest levels since he took office in September, hit by scandals and criticism of his handling of the pandemic.
Both the LDP and Tokyoites First called for faster vaccinations in their campaigns, while Tokyoites First said it would press for spectators to be excluded from the Olympics. Suga has said the idea of barring fans hasn’t been ruled out.
Virus numbers have been picking up in Tokyo, raising worries about whether the government can stem infections before the July 23 opening ceremony. While Japan’s initially delayed vaccine rollout has accelerated, only about 12 percent of the population is fully inoculated, leaving many people at risk. Signs of a slowdown in the program are also emerging.
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In the 2017 vote, the LDP suffered a shock defeat to Tokyoites First when it was an upstart party riding on the coattails of its founder, Koike. Sunday’s election will not affect Koike’s position as governor, to which she was re-elected for a second four-year term in 2020. Koike, a former senior member of the LDP, hasn’t campaigned for either party in the assembly election.