Prefectural elections for the

Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly The is the prefectural parliament of Tokyo Metropolis. Its 127 members are elected every four years in 42 districts by single non-transferable vote. 23 electoral districts equal the special wards, another 18 districts are made up by the cities, ...

(平成29年/2017年東京都議会議員選挙, ''Heisei 29-nen/2017-nen Tōkyō togikai giin senkyo'', "Heisei 29/2017 election of members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly") were held on 2 July 2017. The 127 members were elected in forty-two electoral districts, seven returning single members elected by

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast the ...

, and thirty-five returning multiple members under

single non-transferable vote Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used to elect multiple winners. It is a generalization of first-past-the-post, applied to multi-member districts with each voter casting just one vote. Unlike FPTP, which is a single-win ...

. Four districts had their magnitude adjusted in this election to match population changes. The results of the election persuaded

Shinzo Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

to call a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

, and led to the resignation of Renho as Democratic Party leader.

Background

LDP leader

took office as Prime Minister following the 2012 general election and strengthened his position in the 2014 general election. However, Abe's government was subsequently struck by criticism for its handling of the

Moritomo Gakuen Moritomo Gakuen (学校法人森友学園, ''Gakkō hōjin Moritomo Gakuen'') is a Japanese private school operator, most known for its involvement in a 2017 political scandal implicating former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and his wife, Akie Ab ...

scandal and controversial remarks by Defense Minister

Tomomi Inada is a Japanese lawyer and politician serving as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives, representing the 1st Fukui Prefecture since September 2005. She previously served as the 14th Japanese Minister of Defense from August 2016 to Jul ...

. In the meantime,

Yuriko Koike is a Japanese politician who currently serves as the Governor of Tokyo since 2016. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1976 and was a member of the House of Representatives of Japan from 1993 until 2016, when she resigned to ...

won the

2016 Tokyo gubernatorial election The 2016 Tokyo gubernatorial election took place on 31 July 2016 to elect the successor to Governor Yoichi Masuzoe, who submitted his resignation to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on 15 June 2016. By-elections in four of Tokyo's cities were held ...

as an independent candidate, and left the LDP in June 2017 to found a new local political party, Tomin First, to challenge the LDP in the prefectural election. At the time of the election, Koike was widely believed to be eyeing a future bid to replace Abe as prime minister.

Candidates

Results

With counting almost complete, the seat distribution was as follows:

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

News Web (short-term online availability), Shutoken studio, election coverage
Results

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

Togisen 2017

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...

2017 togisen
/ref> * Supporters of

won 79 seats in total: 49 by Tomin First no Kai, 23 by Kōmeitō, 1 by the Seikatsusha Net, and 6 by independents endorsed by Tomin; * The LDP, previously the largest party, fell to 23 seats, their worst-ever result (their worst scores had previously been 38 seats, in the

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in for a full term ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

elections); * The Communist Party won 19 seats, improving further on their strong 2013 result; * The DP was reduced to five seats and the single Ishin no Kai incumbent defended his seat. Months after the Tokyo prefectural election, Abe called a snap

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

for October 2017, and Koike established the new

Kibo no To Kibo may refer to: * Kibō (ISS module), Japanese Experiment Module (JEM), component of the International Space Station * Kibo, a volcanic cone forming the main summit of Mount Kilimanjaro * An alias of James Parry, who as "Kibo" became a cult f ...

party to challenge the LDP nationally.

By district

Most districts are coterminous with a municipality (''-ku/-shi/-chō/-son'') of the same name. The following districts comprise multiple municipalities: * ''Nishi-Tama'' ("West Tama“; follows the original boundaries of the district of the same name, except Ōme):

Fussa is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 56,786, and a population density of 5600 persons per km². The total area of the city is . About one third of the city area is occup ...

Hamura is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 54,622, and a population density of 5500 persons per km². The total area of the city was . Geography Hamura is approximately in the ...

Akiruno 260px, Akigawa River in the autumn is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 80,177, and a population density of 1100 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geograph ...

, Hinohara, Hinode,

Mizuho Mizuho () literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. It was also an ancient name of Japan. It might refer to: Places * Mizuho, Gifu, a city in Gifu * Mizuho, Tokyo, a town in Tokyo * Mizuho Plateau in An ...

, Okutama * ''Minami-Tama'' ("South Tama“; follows the boundaries of the former district of the same name): Tama,

Inagi 270px, Inagi City Hall is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 92,585 in 41,592 households, and a population density of 5200 persons per km². The total area of the city was . ...

* ''Kita-Tama dai-1'' ("North Tama #1“; follows the boundaries of the former Kitatama district): Higashi-Murayama, Higashi-Yamato, Musashi-Murayama * ''Kita-Tama dai-2'' ("North Tama #2“): Kokubunji, Kunitachi * ''Kita-Tama dai-3'' ("North Tama #3“):

Chōfu is a city in the western side of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 238,087, and a population density of 11,000 per km². the total area of the city is . Geography Chōfu is approximately in the south-center o ...

Komae is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. It is one of 30 municipalities in the western portion of Tokyo known as the Tama Area. , the city had an estimated population of 83,218, and a population density of 13,000 pers ...

* ''Kita-Tama dai-4'' ("North Tama #4“): Kiyose, Higashi-Kurume * Islands:

Aogashima is a volcanic island to the south of Japan in northernmost Micronesia. It is the southernmost and most isolated inhabited island of the Izus, which are politically and administratively part of Japan but geographically not part of the Japanese ...

, Hachijō, Mikurajima, Miyake, Ogasawara, Kōzushima,

Niijima is a volcanic Japanese island administered by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. It is one of the Izu Seven Islands group of the seven northern islands of the Izu archipelago, and is located approximately south of Tōkyō and south of S ...

, Ōshima,

Toshima is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the eight central wards of the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Located in the northern area of Tokyo, Toshima is bordered by the wards of Nerima, Itabashi, and Kita in the north and Nakano, Shinjuku, ...

Same-day elections

On the same day, the mayoral election in

Kokubunji, Tokyo 250px, Ruins of Musashi Kokubun-ji temple is a city located in the western portion of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 126,791, and a population density of 11,000 persons per km². The total area of the city wa ...

returned incumbent Kunio Izawa, backed by LDP and Komeito, against center-left supported (DP, JCP, LP, SDP, Net) former deputy mayor Michio Higuchi. Another prefectural election on July 2 was the

gubernatorial election A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of politica ...

in Hyōgo.The Mainichi nglish_online_edition_of_the_Mainichi_Shimbun.html" ;"title="Mainichi_Shimbun.html" ;"title="nglish online edition of the Mainichi Shimbun">nglish online edition of the Mainichi Shimbun">Mainichi_Shimbun.html" ;"title="nglish online edition of the Mainichi Shimbun">nglish online edition of the Mainichi Shimbun July 3, 2017
Incumbent Ido secures 5th term as Hyogo governor
/ref>

References

External links

* Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Secretariat of the election administration commission
Turnout and Results of the 2017 Metropolitan Assembly election
(pdf/excel) {{Tokyo elections 2017 in Tokyo Tokyo prefectural elections July 2017 events in Japan 2017 elections in Japan