June 25, 2013

The Japanese Communist Party more than doubled its number of seats from eight to 17 as a result of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on June 23, becoming the third largest party in the assembly. Its share of seats increased to 13%.

The JCP put up 42 candidates in all 42 constituencies, and received 616,721 votes or 13.61% of total votes.

The Liberal Democratic Party increased its strength from 38 to 59 seats, and the Komei Party secured all the 23 seats it held before the election. The Democratic Party of Japan suffered a crushing defeat. It barely obtained 15 seats or less than one third of its pre-election strength of 54 seats. The Your Party got seven seats. Only two of 34 candidates of the Japan Restoration Party were elected.

The voter turnout stood at 43.5%, down by around 11 percentage points from 54.49% in the previous election four years ago.

On the next day, all the 17 newly elected JCP metropolitan assembly members took to the streets to show their determination to work for Tokyo residents. Yoshida Nobuo, who was elected from Suginami Ward and heads the assembly members, said that the JCP now has the right to introduce bills as it won more than 11 seats in the assembly. He added, “We will do our utmost to realize the public demand to immediately shut down all the nuclear reactors and to protect the Constitution.”