In the election on Sunday, Ms. Koike garnered over 2.9 million votes, or 42.8% of the total, handily defeating her rivals.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and floundering Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be relieved that the 71-year-old, who ran as an independent, won.
In 2016, Ms. Koike was elected as the first female governor of Tokyo, and she was re-elected in 2020.
However, she also had to deal with criticism over her academic background and the infrastructure projects she oversaw while serving asgovernor.
Ms. Koike declared victory and stated that “how to proceed with digital transformation as industries have changed significantly” was her key concern.
She said that she would combine her efforts to maintain Tokyo better, adding that “the environment for women’s empowerment” was “insufficient [in Japan] compared to other parts of the world.”
With her nomination, Ms. Koike becomes one of the most influential women in the male-dominated field of Japanese politics. She claimed to have won her first term “because I [am] a woman” in an interview with the news.
