As a winter storm dumped the heaviest snowfall in 45 years [1] on Tokyo, only 46.16 percent of voters went to the polls to cast their ballots for governor on Sunday, February 9, 2014, the third-lowest turnout in
[2]People holding umbrellas in heavy snow. Photo taken on February 8 in Tokyo by flickr user lestaylorphoto (CC BY NC-ND 2.0)
Tokyo's governor election history.
The newly elected governor is Masuzoe Yoichi [3], former cabinet minister backed by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komei Party, winning 2,112,979 votes, or about 43 percent of the vote.
Twitter users shared their criticism of the low turnout. Philosopher Tatsuru Uchida [4] [ja] expressed his disappointment:
都知事選の結果、脱力するような数字でした。日本人はこれまでのままの価値観で、これまでのままの政治手法で、「そっちに行くと崖っぷちだよ」という方向に粛々と向かってゆくように僕には見えます。
— 内田樹 (@levinassien) 2014, 2月 10 [5]
The number of voters who went to the polls for Tokyo's governor election made me feel washed out. It seems to me that the Japanese with conventional virtue and conventional political means, are silently heading in a direction where it's like, “hey, there's a precipice ahead.”
Illustrator Nigirikopushi drew a caricature, linking the coldness of the weather and the losing anti-nuclear candidates. In the center, winning Masuzoe is holding three umbrellas representing “Walfare”, ‘”Olympics” and “Economy” while wearing a warm jacket with the Liberal Democratic Party's and Komei Party's emblems on it. On the left is a portrait of a shivering Kenji Utsunomiya, an anti-nuclear human rights lawyer who came in second place. On the right is anti-nuclear candidate Morihiro Hosokawa, who took third, standing next to his supporter, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, saying “it's cold out here”. The writing in the snow reads “anti-nuclear”:
【風刺風似顔絵】雪の都知事選 pic.twitter.com/aPtpp3Fny0 [6]
— にぎりこぷし (@ncopsi) 2014, 2月 10 [7]
Caricature portrait for Tokyo's governor election.
Former newspaper reporter Eiken Itagaki argues [8] [ja] that Masuzoe may run afoul of Japan's Public Officers Election Act, saying he distributed Tokyo Olympic badges worth 3,000 Japanese yen (about 30 US dollars) each to gain support, an act that could violate the law prohibiting political contributions for campaign. The complainant is the same activist group [9] that has filed a complaint against former Governor Naoki Inose [10] late last year for allegedly receiving contribution. Inose claimed that it was a personal loan but he resigned over the issue. The complaint against new Governor awaits whether or not the court will take his accusation.