TOKYO, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike kept hush on Wednesday as to whether she intends to continue as the leader of an upstart opposition party that suffered a crushing defeat in Sunday's lower house election, local media reported.
In response to a question about her staying on as the Party of Hope's (PoH) chief, Koike, on her return from a climate change conference in Paris, told reporters that while the outcome was severe, failed to indicate her future intentions.
"The outcome was really severe. There are a lot of factors we have to reflect on," Koike was quoted as telling reporters.
Koike had previously said that remarks she had made prior to the election had been perceived by the public to have been egotistic.
Among other things, she said her embryonic PoH, which absorbed conservatives from the moribund Democratic Party prior to the election, would wrestle power away from the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The governor stated that she would consider what course of action she should take following her party's humiliating defeat after consulting with other party members.
The governor of Tokyo did not rule out stepping down as the party's chief.
Koike said that she bears "the responsibility for having created the party," but rejected the idea that the party should be dissolved, however.
"It is not good to disband the party as a way to take responsibility for the election loss. We have to bear in mind that close to 10 million people voted for the Party of Hope in the House of Representatives election," she said.
The Party of Hope fielded 235 candidates nationwide in the 465-seat lower house election on Sunday but won only 50 seats compared to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's overwhelming 281 seats.
Koike's party also lost to another fledgling party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), formed from Democratic Party liberals that were rejected from Koike's party on ideological and policy grounds.
The CDPJ, headed by former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, went on to secure 54 seats in the lower house race, making it now the dominant force in the opposition camp.
Following a drop in public support after Koike's remarks, which she admitted "offended people," the reform-minded conservative PoH, also failed to impress, in the capital, Tokyo, where it lost in all but one district of the 23 in Tokyo in which it fielded candidates.
This scenario was widely expected by informed sources here.
"Governor Koike's Party of Hope are little more than LDP-lite'," Dr. Tina Burrett, Associate Professor of Political Science at Sophia University, told Xinhua.
"Koike herself was a member of the LDP until recently and served in prime minister Abe's first government as Defense Secretary," she said.
Adding that, on the issue of constitutional amendment, an important issue in the election, the views of her and her party differ little from Abe's.
"She doesn't have a clear economic policy and wage stagnation, specifically, is a key issue for voters," said Burrett.
Koike's decision not to run for the Diet herself and her party's policies being similar to those of the LDP did little to garner support from the public.
