Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike declares her intention to run for a third term during a plenary session of the metropolitan assembly on June 12. (Shota Tomonaga)

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on June 12 announced her candidacy for an election that already features more than 30 people intent on unseating the two-term incumbent.

“I will promote ‘Tokyo major reform 3.0,’” Koike, 71, said at a plenary session of the metropolitan assembly. “With that determination, I have decided to run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July.”

The campaign will officially start on June 20 and the election will be held on July 7.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition, Komeito, are expected to back the governor.

Koike was first elected Tokyo governor in 2016 as a Lower House member of the LDP, despite the decision by the party’s Tokyo chapter to support a different candidate.

Koike won that poll and left the LDP. She was re-elected in a landslide in 2020.

Although the field is crowded, political observers are viewing the Tokyo election as a race between Koike and Renho, 56, an Upper House member of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

Such a showdown would likely become a battle between the ruling and opposition parties.

On June 12, Renho submitted a notice of resignation to the CDP so that she can run as an independent.

The CDP, the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party are expected to support Renho.

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