Dark horse Shinji Ishimaru surprised observers when he finished as runner-up in the Tokyo gubernatorial election on July 7 ahead of well-known politician Renho by attracting young and unaffiliated voters.

Ishimaru, 41, a former mayor of Akitakata, Hiroshima Prefecture, did not discuss detailed policies in his short speeches on the streets during campaigning.

Shinnosuke Fujikawa, secretary-general of Ishimaru’s campaign, said voters today do not cast their ballots based solely on a candidate’s policies.

Ishimaru’s messages spread through online videos shot and posted by those who came to hear his speeches.

But Fujikawa, 70, founder of the Fujikawa Political Consulting Firm, said Ishimaru’s tactic of not articulating his policies on the streets can work only once and that he needs to develop solid initiatives to gain wider support.

While incumbent Yuriko Koike, 71, handily won re-election with 2.92 million votes, Ishimaru, despite running without support from political parties, still managed to gain 1.66 million votes to finish in second place.

Renho, 56, a former Upper House member of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, ended up third with 1.28 million votes.

Excerpts from Fujikawa’s interview follow:

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Question: Why do you think Ishimaru won so many votes?

Fujikawa: He made more than 200 speeches on the streets, but what stood out was that he didn’t address specific policy issues. He just kept introducing himself.

Saying, “I do not care about small issues,” he kept talking about “correcting politics.”

Even so, 80 to 90 percent of the audiences said they were impressed before they left.

He was not necessarily good at speaking in public, and those who know politics on the front lines would be the first to criticize his speeches for lacking substance. But he knew what he was doing.

“Traditional politicians made long speeches and advocated policies, but have they ever made good on their policies and promises?” he asks.

Today, we do not have elections where voters seriously examine (candidates’) policies, believe “these are the policies we need” and cast their ballots.

Q: Have elections become a popularity contest rather than a policy competition?

A: In the 2009 Lower House election (when the Democratic Party of Japan took power), 1 million copies of the pamphlet of the party’s manifesto left on the table were gone in a flash.

Voters were intensely interested in policies.

But the DPJ lost power without putting its manifesto into practice. It also was not apologetic about its failure to implement it. It is a major cause of the current public distrust in politics.

The subsequent Liberal Democratic Party administration led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did a reasonable job with monetary and fiscal policies but failed to do anything about the growth strategy.

As a result, a certain segment of the population does not want to vote for either the LDP or the CDP (which includes many former DPJ lawmakers).

Q: Does it mean that politicians cannot win trust if they appeal to voters with policies?

Under ordinary circumstances, they compete on policy, but it makes no sense at all to do so.

Intellectuals, politicians and mass media organizations, among others, have created that kind of political mood.

Precisely because he understood it intuitively, Ishimaru was able to tap his potential to reach out to unaffiliated voters as a YouTuber in the election.

Q: Was there a strategy from the outset to have people who came to hear his speeches shoot and upload videos?

A: Everyone who came would post a video, and one speech would be viewed 1 million or 2 million times.

Ishimaru’s speech lasted 15 to 20 minutes. Usually, people get tired of listening to speeches for 30 to 40 minutes under the blazing sun.

Baby-boomers may be thrilled to hear Renho’s trademark barb, but the younger generation is sick of it.

Because Ishimaru did not talk much about policies, I was afraid that more people might become unsatisfied, and his campaign might lose momentum. But my fears proved unfounded.

Q: Ishimaru did not answer questions head-on when he appeared on TV on the night of the election day. Why do you think he adopted that approach?

A: That makes me nervous, but some people would give him credit, saying, “He said it well.”

Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) expanded its presence because its founder, Toru Hashimoto (former governor of Osaka Prefecture), has a strong personality.

The party functioned well as an organization because it had a “controller” in Ichiro Matsui (also a former Osaka governor).

Ishimaru currently does not have such a person. It will become a major obstacle for him.

Q: Will the tactic of not articulating policies on the streets continue to be effective?

This approach is a one-time thing. Ishimaru fever will eventually wane. If those with cold eyes listen to his speech, they would just think, “He is saying the same thing again.”

Ishimaru does not have close advisers. Unless he has advisers to help him formulate policies, he will not be able to continue to work.

He needs to develop policies that can be trusted by a wide range of people.

(This article is based on an interview by Kei Kobayashi.)

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Shinnosuke Fujikawa was elected to the Osaka municipal assembly after working as secretary to an LDP Diet member.

He then worked as an election planner and secretary-general of a political party before establishing the Fujikawa Political Consulting Firm in 2022.

Fujikawa supported Nippon Ishin in elections in and around Tokyo in recent years. He was also responsible for election support for the LDP’s Tanaka faction and the DPJ’s Ozawa group.