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Politics in Japan can be a staid affair. The race to become the governor of Tokyo, which reached its climax on July 7th, was anything but that. Fifty-six candidates, many of them eccentrics, traded barbs. Pets featured on election posters; so, in one case, did pornography. A candidate dressed as the Joker from Batman spouted nonsense on national television. Another took off her clothes.

In the end Koike Yuriko, the incumbent governor, bagged herself a third term with some 43% of votes. Yet it was the second-place finisherIshimaru Shinji, an outspoken but little-known former bankerwho stole the headlines. Up to now, Japanese voters have seemed curiously unmoved by the kinds of social-media-fuelled populism that have upturned politics in other countries. That no longer seems so true.

Most people expected that the race would be a head-to-head between Ms Koike, a former national legislator for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Saito Renho from the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), the main liberal opposition (who goes by just her given name). Both Ms Koike and Renho gained fame as television newsreaders before they entered politics. Yet relative obscurity was no obstacle for Mr Ishimaru. His brief political careerfour years as mayor of Akitakata, an unremarkable town in Hiroshimadid not produce any noteworthy achievements. His candidacy was not backed by any political party.

Read more from the original source:
Social-media populists have arrived in Japan - The Economist