Why Yuriko Koike is the new face of brand Japan

COMMENTARY / Japan

Why Yuriko Koike is the new face of brand Japan

In Tokyo’s governor, people see a viable alternative to the LDP’s stale and scandal-plagued status quo

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's party Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First) played on the people's wish to see some change from the status quo that acts as a political straightjacket for too many critical issues, from security to privacy to the runaway costs of the 2020 Olympics. | BLOOMBERG

By Nancy Snow
Special To The Japan Times

Jul 12, 2017

There’s a famous party scene in “All About Eve” where Bette Davis’ character Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging actress whose career is on a downturn, expresses alarm at the rise of a rival ingenue Eve Harrington, who has caught the attention of her director boyfriend. At the end of her tether, Margo ascends the stairs and declares, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” As a forewarning to Margo’s quip, one partygoer declares, “The general atmosphere is very Macbethish, what has or is about to happen?”

We must be asking ourselves the same. Dust has settled on Abenomics. The Trump-Abe golf diplomacy in Mar-a-Lago? So long ago. The presence of the Liberal Democratic Party has become like that uncle who refuses to leave when you’ve said the party is over.

The LDP behemoth just got its clocks cleaned by a former member-turned-new party maverick who understands that the winds of change are blowing decisively in the direction of reform and transparency.