Japan Press Weekly

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2011 April 6 - 12 [JCP]

JCP in first half of nationwide local elections

In the first half of the nationwide simultaneous local elections held on April 10, the total number of Japanese Communist Party seats in 41 prefectural assemblies decreased to 80, down by 16 from the previous election in 2007. In the assembly elections in 15 major cities, the number of JCP seats fell by 16 to 99.

Compared with the votes the JCP received in the 2010 House of Councilors proportional representation election, the number of 1,878,502 votes for the JCP in prefectural assembly elections was up by 36.9 percent. In major city assembly elections, the JCP obtained 814,378 votes, up by 16.8 percent on average for 15 cities.

The Democratic Party of Japan reduced its seats in prefectural assemblies to 364, down by 38. The Liberal Democratic Party decreased its seats by 21 to 1,119, the Komei Party by 2 to 171, and the Social Democratic Party by 14 to 30. The Your Party won 41 seats and the Osaka Ishin-no Kai (Osaka Restoration Group) 57.

All progressive candidates supported by the JCP worked very hard in the gubernatorial elections in 12 prefectures held on the same day, but failed to be elected.

In the Tokyo Gubernatorial election, candidate Koike Akira of the Association for a Progressive Metropolitan Administration received 623,913 votes (10.4% of all votes cast). The incumbent Governor Ishihara Shintaro was reelected.

After the election results were made public, Koike at a press conference said that he caught the attention of a lot of voters by his election promises to establish a welfare-conscious and disaster-resistant Tokyo to protect people’s lives and change Tokyo to a city utilizing natural energy sources by breaking its dependence on nuclear power generation. He also expressed his determination to change Ishihara policies and work hard to support the Great East Japan Disaster victims to reconstruct their lives.