Women Fight Tokyo Election in Male-Dominated Japan

Tokyo residents clutching fans and cold drinks took to polling stations Sunday to elect their governor, with two prominent women vying for the job in Japan’s male-dominated political sphere.
Japan has never had a woman prime minister and a large majority of lawmakers are men, but Tokyo, accounting for a tenth of the national population and a fifth of the economy, has been run since 2016 by former minister and television anchor Yuriko Koike, 71.
She is being challenged by opposition figure Renho, 56, also a veteran political and ex-anchor who goes by one name.
With temperatures topping 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the capital, voters complained of the heat as they went to cast their ballots.
Akiko Mimori, 58, held a parasol against the blazing sun moments after voting.
“I came here as I felt it’s necessary to cast a ballot for (the election of) the governor of where I live,” she said.
While few now tout Koike as a possible future prime minister, as many once did, polls suggest that the media-savvy conservative will win a third straight term in the metropolis of 14 million people.