Tokyo elects first female governor
Former Defence Minister Yuriko Koike has been elected governor of Tokyo, the first woman to lead Japan's capital, BBC reports.
Ms Koike, running as an independent candidate, received more than 2.9 million votes in Sunday's election, beating her opponents by a wide margin.
One of her key challenges will be curbing the financial problems plaguing Tokyo's preparations to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
Both her predecessors resigned over funding scandals.
Ms Koike is a member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but it did not endorse her so she ran as an independent.
To remind, Five Star Movement’s Virginia Raggi, a 37-year-old lawyer, has been elected mayor of Rome at the end of June. She’s the first woman to run the Italian capital.