Yuriko Koike, Tokyo's first female governor. Screencap from ANN official YouTube channel. Tokyo elected its first female governor on July 31. The political underdog Yuriko Koike, who was sidelined by her own party, racked up 2.91 million votes in a landslide victory. Despite her popularity at the polls, Koike's battle is far from over. At her first day on the job, she was snubbed by Tokyo's assembly members. Koike receives cold welcome – The Japan News https://t.co/Owmb5KrEc3 #都知事選 #Tokyo #小池百合子 #YurikoKoike #LDP #自民党都議連 pic.twitter.com/StT8XVkA0U — The Japan News (@The_Japan_News) August 3, 2016 Koike also inherits an office plagued by money scandals. The last two governors stepped down after accusations of graft. During her campaign, Koike made big promises to make the management of the metropolitan government more transparent and to introduce policies that would create ‘a Tokyo where everyone — women, men, children, senior citizens and people living with disabilities — could shine’. To meet these big promises, Koike, the rogue candidate, will effectively have to work with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). That's the party that sidelined her. The LDP runs the metropolitan government and has a majority in the metropolitan assembly. Officially, 64-year-old Koike is a member of the LDP. She even had a successful tenure as their environment minister. But after failing to obtain her party's consent, she ran as an independent in the governor's race. The LDP, instead, backed their former internal affairs minister Masuda against her. Koike's landslide victory came despite threats from the LDP that it would expel members who voted for Koike over Masuda. At the polls, Masuda only got 1.79 million votes; the opposition-backed Shuntaro Torigoe got 1.34 million votes. Koike, the rogue candidate, won by a landslide. While Koike's emphasis of her underdog status seems to have paid off well for her in the race, on her first day on the job she received a cold shoulder from Tokyo assembly members, possibly due to remarks she made during the campaign that the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly is a hotbed of corruption: 小池百合子知事、初登庁！通例であれば議長以下、各会派の幹部クラスが並んで出迎えるのですが、出迎えた都議はわれわれのみ…。さらに並び順でも都庁役人と一悶着ありました。。 早くも開戦です。詳しくは今日のブログで報告します。 pic.twitter.com/KBvglRRKus — おときた駿（東京都議会議員 /北区選出） (@otokita) August 2, 2016 Governor Koike arrives at the Tochō (Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building) for the first time! […] We were the only members of the assembly to come out and greet her. And there was discord even among the staff who were lined up for the ceremony this morning. The battle lines have already been drawn. […] — Otokita Shun (Assembly to Energize Japan), Member of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly An LDP veteran, Koike has a unusual biography for a Japanese politician. Born in Ashiya, an affluent suburb of Kobe in western Japan, Koike's father ran a company that traded and imported oil and petroleum. This family ties likely instilled the importance of relations with the Middle East in Koike, who went on to study at Cairo University in Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Koike has said that she learned a lot about international politics from her experience of the war. “Cool Biz” is an energy-saving campaign initiated by the Japanese Ministry of the Environment from summer 2005. Government employees were encouraged to shed their ties and jackets during the summer, allowing office air conditioner temperatures to be set to higher temperatures. The campaign soon spread to the private sector. Initially the campaign was from June to September, but it was extended to run from May to October following electricity shortages after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Businessmen dress down for Japan's sweltering summer. Image credit: akaitori on Flickr Koike first worked as an Arabic interpreter, TV journalist, and news anchor before entering politics. In politics, she earned herself the unflattering nickname “migrant bird” for her frequent party switching: she held positions with several now-defunct conservative parties before becoming a member of the LDP in 2002. She was appointed environment minister the following year, and was responsible for proposing the successful “Cool Biz” campaign, which encourages businesses to adopt a casual dress code for the summer months. Koike also became the first female defense minister in 2007, but resigned just 55 days later due to a dispute over the appointment of the vice minister. As the Tokyo metropolis’ first female governor, Koike is committed to pushing policies that will promote better conditions for women. After her victory, Koike declared: I […] will create a Tokyo where everyone can shine – women, men, children, senior citizens and people living with disabilities.