Tokyo governor’s party headed for big electoral win

TOKYO— The new party of the Japanese capital’s populist governor appeared headed for a thumping victory Sunday over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s scandal-laden ruling party in a Tokyo assembly election that could alter national politics, with Abe’s historic defeat likely making it difficult for him to achieve his agenda.

Gov. Yuriko Koike’s Tomin First no Kai, or Tokyoites First party, won 49 of the 127 assembly seats, or all but one of the candidates it fielded, Japanese television stations reported Sunday evening after the voting ended.

Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, meanwhile, took a beating for recent scandals and an increasingly criticized high-handed approach. The LDP won only 23 seats — down from its current 57, and even less than its previous record low of 38 seats set in 1995 and 2009, according to national broadcaster NHK. The LDP fielded 60 candidates.

Koike’s Tomin First party and the Komei party, its new ally and the LDP’S longtime coalition partner in parliament, together secured 72 seats, comfortably exceeding the majority of the assembly, making it easier for Koike to push through her political agenda. All of Komei’s 23 candidates won.

For Abe, the results mean it will be more difficult for him to achieve his goals — to stay as prime minister until the 2020 Olympics and to achieve his long-cherished revision to the war-renouncing constitution.

Koike declared victory as she decorated the names of her party’s projected winners on a white board with flower-shaped ribbons in the shade of green — her signature color.

“We are certain to become the leading party” in the assembly, she said, adding that the results had exceeded her expectations.