Candidates in the Tokyo gubernatorial election were busy appealing to voters during the first weekend of the campaign amid drizzly weather, with contrasting strategies beginning to emerge.
For the July 7 poll, campaigning for which kicked off Thursday, incumbent Yuriko Koike has prioritized businesses and visited small villages and towns in the capital, while challenger Renho has focused on giving speeches in central Tokyo in hopes of reaching as many people as possible.
Early polls conducted by the Asahi Shimbun and the Nikkei over the weekend both showed that Koike, who is looking to secure her third term, was leading the pack of 56 candidates — the highest number of people running in the city’s history — with Renho chasing right behind. Shinji Ishimaru, the 41-year-old former mayor of the city of Akitakata in Hiroshima Prefecture, was in third.