THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
May 18, 2024 at 18:52 JST
A mayor in western Japan announced his bid to become governor of Tokyo, saying he felt a strong sense of crisis over the nation’s declining population.
Shinji Ishimaru, who is 41 and represents the city of Akitakata in Hiroshima Prefecture, said May 17 he will run as an independent candidate in the July 7 gubernatorial election.
“I have to do something, and that is to stop the decline of rural areas,” Ishimaru told a news conference.
He cited a finding last month by the Population Strategy Council that 40 percent of all municipalities in Japan, or 744, “may disappear.”
“Many municipalities are headed for extinction,” Ishimaru said. “We thought it necessary to shake up the Tokyo metropolitan government, which has the most power.”
If he topples incumbent Yuriko Koike in the election, Ishimaru said he would work closely with the governors of the other 46 prefectures to realize a “multipolar dispersion” of the population, adding that he could solve Tokyo’s problems, such as overcrowding, at the same time.
He did not explain how he would achieve this.
Asked why he is running as an independent candidate, Ishimru said, “This is not the time for a proxy war in national politics.”
Then, when pressed whether he would accept endorsements from political parties, Ishimaru replied: “I would like to seek support if possible. I don’t care which party. I would like to seek support if there is a shared vision on the development of Tokyo and Japan.”
A former banker, the Akitakata native was first elected mayor in August 2020. He clashed with the city council the following month when he pointed out on Twitter, now X, that a council member “dozed off” during a meeting. Videos of their exchanges at the council meeting and regular news conferences drew a surge of online interest.
Koike, 71, who is in her second term as governor of Tokyo, has not announced her candidacy, and major parties such as the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the main opposition Constitutional Party of Japan have not announced their support for any particular candidate.
The election is scheduled to be announced on June 20, with the vote to be held on July 7.
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Shinji Ishimaru announces his candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election on May 17 in Hiroshima. (Photo by Jun Ueda)
