Tokyo (AFP)

Tokyo will hold the election of its governor on July 5, 2020 less than three weeks before the kick-off of the Summer Olympics in the Japanese capital, the city announced on Wednesday.

Outgoing governor Yuriko Koike, 67, has not officially announced her candidacy but is widely seen as determined to do so.

Her principal ends on July 30 and she has to hold elections within 30 days.

Municipal elections are usually held on a Sunday, making July 5th the latest date for the opening ceremony of the Games on July 24th.

Ms. Koike, with a keen sense of communication and a regular media personality, won the election in 2016, becoming the first woman to lead the world's most populous megacity.

She had created surprise and shaken the Japanese political world by creating in 2017 her own party, the Party of Hope, to counter Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in legislative elections.

But after a promising start, the support granted to her had collapsed, in large part because she did not run for a seat. She thus excluded for the voters of her party to have in it a potential prime minister, in a country where the head of the government must come from Parliament.

More recently, she made the headlines by vigorously opposing the International Olympic Committee's decision to move the marathon to the north of the country to escape the humid summer heat of Tokyo. She had finally grumbled, saying clearly that she was doing it just because she had no choice.

The official campaign is scheduled to begin June 18th. The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled from July 24 to August 9.

© 2019 AFP