Japan PM's party on track for big defeat in Tokyo election: exit polls

Reuters

Published Jul 02, 2017 07:28AM ET

Japan PM's party on track for big defeat in Tokyo election: exit polls

TOKYO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) was on track for a stinging defeat in an election in the Japanese capital on Sunday, exit polls showed, signaling trouble for the Japanese leader, who is suffering from slumping support because of a scandal over suspected favoritism for a friend's business.

On the surface, the Tokyo Metropolitan assembly election is a referendum on Governor Yuriko Koike's year in office, but a poor showing for Abe's party will also be taken as a rebuke of his 4-1/2-year-old administration.