The main opposition party has again been forced to do some serious soul searching after its star candidate finished a disappointing third in the Tokyo gubernatorial election.

“Last night, I thought that we might not be a viable option anymore,” Kiyomi Tsujimoto, an executive deputy president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters on July 8, a day after Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike won an easy re-election.

“I felt as if the existing political parties were falling from grace. The question is how we can ‘update’ ourselves,” Tsujimoto said.

The election was initially portrayed as a one-on-one battle between the incumbent, who was supported by the ruling coalition parties, and Renho, a former CDP Upper House member also backed by the Japanese Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party.

But Renho, 56, collected only 1.28 million votes, 380,000 fewer than runner-up Shinji Ishimaru and less than half of the 2.92 million ballots cast for Koike.

Ishimaru, 41, former mayor of Akitakata, Hiroshima Prefecture, did not receive support from any political party. He also criticized the politics conducted by traditional political parties.

A high-profile politician known for her outspoken, aggressive style, Renho left the CDP after she announced her candidacy to take on Koike in the governor’s race.

Renho’s strategy was to win over young and unaffiliated voters, as well as those disappointed with the scandal-hit ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

But it was Ishimaru, an internet-savvy independent, who galvanized the young and unaffiliated voters.

While Ishimaru garnered 36 percent of unaffiliated voters, more than Koike’s 32 percent, Renho attracted only 16 percent, according to exit polls by The Asahi Shimbun.

Renho’s crushing defeat gave a jolt to the CDP partly because the LDP had lost several local elections since the scandal broke over unreported political funds among party factions.

During the campaign, Ishimaru addressed voters not only on the streets but also through online videos.

A young CDP lawmaker elected from Tokyo said Ishimaru attracted unaffiliated voters, including many young people, not because of his policies but through public exposure via social media.

“Renho emphasized policies targeting young people, but the votes of the younger generation went to Ishimaru, who said nothing specific about youth-oriented policies,” the lawmaker said.

Yukio Edano, former CDP president, has said the party needs to advocate solid policies to win over non-aligned voters.

“Unaffiliated voters are a diverse set of people,” Edano said in a speech in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, on July 7. “In the long run, we will be able to gain their support by taking action without seeking short-term novelty.”

The governor’s race once again called the CDP’s partnership with the JCP into question.

Critics said the CDP failed to reach out to middle-of-the-road and conservative voters because its ties with the JCP alienated the Democratic Party for the People, another opposition party, and Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation).

“Our relationship with the JCP worked adversely,” a veteran CDP lawmaker said. “We are not able to enlist swing votes only with CDP supporters and liberal forces.”

Still, the CDP’s Tokyo chapter, which led Renho’s campaign, has no plans to rethink the party’s relationship with the JCP.

“The sense of gratitude is the only feeling we have for people of the JCP,” Yoshio Tezuka, secretary-general of the Tokyo chapter, said about the party’s contribution during the election.

A source close to Rengo said Renho would have gained even fewer votes if the JCP had not supported her.

“It seems that the ties between the CDP and the JCP will not change at all at the end of the day,” the person said.

A heavyweight CDP lawmaker criticized the party executives and called for a broader collaboration with other opposition parties, such as the DPP and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), as well as Rengo.

“An election defeat as disastrous as this will certainly affect the party presidential election (scheduled for autumn),” the politician said.

(This article was written by Nozomi Matsui and Kenji Izawa.)