Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike on Wednesday formally launched a new party promising conservative reform, stepping up her challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and adding to uncertainty about the outlook for a general election widely expected next month.
But the popular former ruling party lawmaker, who is already upstaging Abe in the media and complicating forecasts, said she herself would not seek a seat in parliament’s lower house now.
Abe said on Monday he would call the snap election to reset his mandate, betting that his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and junior coalition party can keep their majority in parliament’s lower house, where they hold a two-thirds “super majority”.
Abe will dissolve the lower house on Thursday for a vote expected on Oct. 22.
At a news conference launching her “Party of Hope,” Koike repeated promises to form a party without ties to vested interests in order to “reset Japan.”
Reference: Reuters
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