Photo/Illutration Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, right, and Upper House member Renho in 2016 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Upper House member Renho on June 18 both touted “reforms” in their campaign pledges for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, but their targets for change were different.

Koike, 71, promised to expand financial support to the people by building on her achievements during her two terms in office.

Renho, 56, also vowed new spending programs, but also took aim at the expensive and controversial Meiji Jingu Gaien redevelopment project in downtown Tokyo.

Official campaigning for the July 7 election starts on June 20. Nearly 50 people are expected to run.

In her platform “Tokyo Major Reform 3.0,” announced at an online news conference, Koike cited “Safe City,” “Diver City” and “Smart City” as three pillars of her vision for the nation’s capital. The second slogan is a play on the word “diversity.”

To make Tokyo a safer place to live in, Koike said she will improve disaster preparedness of apartments, reduce areas packed with wooden houses and eliminate utility poles by laying power cables underground.

She also plans to build evacuation shelters to protect residents from incoming missiles.

The measures to promote diversity include policies to halt the declining birthrate and to enhance elderly care services.

Koike said she will create a subsidy for the cost of painless delivery and expand free child care to cover married couples’ first children.

She also said she will open Tokyo’s own hospital specializing in dementia and establish a system to raise salaries for nursing care workers.

The Smart City concept includes business incubation and digitization of administrative services.

Renho, who has submitted a resignation notice to the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, announced her platform “Seven Promises” at a news conference in Tokyo.

She called for eliminating wage gaps between regular and non-regular employees.

“I will increase young people’s disposable income,” she told the news conference. “This is a genuine measure to address the falling birthrate.”

She also promised to create a rent subsidy for families with more than one child, and maintain “good” child care and education support policies, such as virtually free education for private high school students.

The former opposition leader also included political reform in her campaign pledge, a clear criticism against Koike and her former party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Renho promised not to hold fund-raising parties, a focus of a money scandal that has rocked the LDP in national politics, and she vowed to promote transparency in the metropolitan government’s decision-making process.

The project to develop the leafy Meiji Jingu Gaien district has drawn criticism mainly because it will cut down hundreds of trees that cover the area.

Renho said she will “rigorously verify” the environmental impact assessment procedures as well as the process of applying the metropolitan government system that enabled the development.

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