Over the nearly three decades since Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike entered politics by winning an election as a candidate of a now-defunct small opposition party, she has enjoyed prominence on the national stage, particularly given speculation she might someday become Japan’s first female prime minister — something that has only intensified following a strong showing in a recent Tokyo election.
At the same time, her career is littered with political parties joined and then abandoned, earning her the nickname among critics as the “wandering bird of Nagatacho,” a reference to Japan’s political heart in Tokyo. Critics, while acknowledging her charisma, charge that she’s more style than substance, and better at politics than governing.
Yet she remains a political survivor.