TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2020) Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko is the front-runner in the election race that is likely to see her lead the Japanese capital for another four years, media in Japan reported on Sunday, citing exit polls.
Tokyo held gubernatorial elections on Sunday, with final results expected to be announced the next day. Koike is racing against 21 other candidates, including renowned lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya and politician Taisuke Ono.
According to the NHK broadcaster, Koike is leading the vote with 60 percent, followed by Utsunomiya and Ono, with no specification of figures for the latter two.
"I will make the maximum of efforts to justify the trust bestowed upon me during the second term as governor of Tokyo," Koike said in an address on national television after the exit polls were revealed.
Specifying her priorities for the second term, Koike highlighted the coronavirus-related policies, saying that it was now "the right time to prepare for a second wave" and take decisive measures.
Before becoming Tokyo's first female governor after a landslide victory in the election of 2016, Koike served as lawmaker in the Japanese parliament and held two cabinet positions � of� environment minister and defense minister � in the governments of Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe, respectively.
