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Renho’s Tokyo Gubernatorial Candidacy Inspires Excitement — and Racism
A popular Japanese politician with Taiwanese roots made waves when she announced her bid for the governor’s office of Tokyo.
By Jay Allen
As someone who loosely follows Japanese politics from the left, there isn’t a lot that happens that I can say truly excites me. Besides a brief period in the 2000s, the right-leaning Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been in power for decades. And no matter how badly they manage things, Japan’s political opposition rarely seems poised to capitalize.
But last month, longtime Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) Diet representative and leader Renho (蓮舫) made waves when she announced she would run as an independent candidate against current Tokyo governor Koike Yuriko (小池百合子). The move shook up Japanese politics and caught the ruling party off guard. It also launched a wave of racist accusations against Renho that likely won’t let up until July’s election.
