City of the Future
When KOIKE Yuriko was elected as the first female Governor of Tokyo in 2016, no one imagined that her re-election four years later would take place during a global pandemic. As a leader of Japan’s capital city, Governor Koike is committed to not only making the city safe from COVID-19, but also preparing to host the long-awaited Olympic Games next year.

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Koike’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak has been cited as the main reason for her re-election. A former TV anchor, the guidance she gave brought hope to the city’s 14 million residents who watched with concern as the daily confirmed cases almost doubled in the days before her re-election.
Koike promised to make dealing with COVID-19 her priority, and this secured her the second largest number of voters in Tokyo’s gubernatorial history. There is now speculation that she will run for a prime minister.
Koike still has much work to do, as the city is facing yet another wave of the pandemic. She must also deal with an economic recession and the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
She says it is important that the world starts to think about a post COVID-19 world as a new era. We should learn to live with the virus, she says.
“We need to realize a society where the ‘new normal’ is firmly established, and seek a balance between containing infection and maintaining socioeconomic activities,” she says.