Tokyo voters rewarded Governor Yuriko Koike for her handling of the coronavirus outbreak by re-electing her to a second term Sunday. Koike, who easily defeated 22 challengers, used her victory speech to offer a pledge to prepare the city for “a second wave” of COVID-19 and to ensure the Summer Olympic Games that were postponed until next year will be safe and secure, while also scaled back in scope and cost. But Koike faces a growing reluctance among the public to stage the Games next year. The 67-year-old Koike became the Japanese capital city’s first female elected leader in 2016 and has often been touted as a successor to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has been widely criticized for bungling the central government’s response to the pandemic.
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