Tokyo's governor won re-election this weekend in a race that turned out a bit differently than the polls suggested, as it did not turn out to be a close one.
Incumbent Yuriko Koike won a third four-year term, taking about 43% of the vote. When she started her first term, Barack Obama was still the U.S. president.
Second place went to Shinji Ishimaru — an independent candidate, one-time banker and former mayor of a city in Hiroshima Prefecture with fewer than 30,000 residents.
A strong social media campaign and solid support among young voters helped him beat out Rehno Saito, who was expected to challenge Koike in the vote totals.
Koike was backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, while the main opposition group, the center-left Constitutional Democratic Party, supported Rehno.
Political commentators in Japan often look at the Tokyo governor's race as a proxy for the broader national political campaign — but this year has some complications.
The LDP actually lost in six of eight districts where it ran candidates for Tokyoʻs metropolitan assembly.
The next date on Japan's national political calendar focuses on Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who still faces an uncertain future when he runs for the LDP's leadership post in September.
