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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and newly elected Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike agreed on Thursday to set aside their differences and work together towards delivering a successful 2020 Olympics and Paralympics Games to be held in Tokyo.
Abe met Koike for the first time since she won Sunday's gubernatorial election and became the first female to assume the post.
In a press briefing following the their meeting, Koike told reporters that she had informed the prime minister of her intentions in her new role and said that Abe had encouraged her to "Make Tokyo better," as quoted by local media.
She also said she wants to boost the status of Japan's capital city as central global financial hub and to this end said that more deregulation would be needed.
They both agreed that through stimulus measures and collaboration between the metropolitan and central government, the nation's economic situation could be improved.
While she is a member of Abe's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), she ran in the recent election race as an independent and denounced the LDP's Tokyo chapter during her campaign.
She then went on to beat the LDP-backed candidate, which Abe described as a blow to his party, although offered his congratulations to her during the opening of their first meeting Thursday.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK described Thursday's meeting as the pair agreeing to "bury the hatchet" for the sake of the 2020 Olympics and Koike confirmed that Abe had acknowledged her victory in the recent election, saying "People want us to cooperate toward a successful Olympics."
The Tokyo Gov. will, henceforth, work closely with Olympic minister Tamayo Marukawa, who was given the portfolio on Wednesday following the prime minister reshuffling his Cabinet and LDP executive lineup.
There could be friction between the two, however, as Marukawa, the environment minister in the previous Cabinet, had called Koike' s election campaign a "waste of time".
Despite such discord, however, Koike said Thursday she is determined to ensure the Games is a success, both for the people of Tokyo and of Japan.
She said the central government's support would also be vital to achieve this.
Abe and Koike have both said they will attend the closing ceremony of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil, which will be held on Aug. 21.
Tokyo is next in line to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2020, although plans so far have been mired in controversy.
Such gaffes, prior to Koike's appointment, included the bidding process itself, a dismissed plan for an over-budget iconic stadium, a plagiarized logo design and a funding scandal that saw the chagrined former Tokyo governor, a key player in the Games' organization, Yoichi Masuzoe, resign recently and necessitating the recent election of a new governor of the nation's capital city.
(APD)
