东京选民选出首位女性都知事

AS IT IS 2016-08-02 Tokyo Voters Elect City’s First Woman Governor 东京选民选出首位女性都知事

Voters in Tokyo have elected the city’s first female governor.

Sixty-four-year-old Yuriko Koike received the most votes in local elections on Sunday. Koike was elected to a four-year term as governor of the Japanese capital, which is one of the world’s largest and wealthiest cities. She will help to direct work for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games.

Preparations for the games have suffered for a number of reasons, including over-spending and delays on building projects. The first logo of the 2020 Olympics had to be redesigned following accusations¹ of plagiarism². A Belgian designer claimed the image was like one of his creations.

Yuriko Koike will be replacing Yoichi Masuzoe as Tokyo’s governor. He resigned after reports that he had misused³ public money. He was the second Tokyo governor to resign since the city won the right to host the 2020 Olympics.

Koike has promised to change the city’s politics. “I want to regain⁴ the trust of the people of Tokyo,” she said late Sunday.

Michael Cucek is with Temple University’s Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies. He spoke⁵ to VOA’s Victor Beattie about the election.

Cucek says Koike’s win is a sign that Tokyo voters want social change. He says women have made progress in recent years. In addition, the Japanese constitution guarantees equal rights to women. However, that has not meant that women have reached the highest levels of government and business in Japan.

“But even now members of the diet, members of the bureaucracy, high-level executives in corporations, particularly Japan’s biggest international corporations, the levels of female managers and the levels of female participants is still astoundingly low for an industrialized country.”

Koike already served as Japan’s first female defense⁶ minister. She is a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP. Yet, she went against her party’s wishes to run for the governorship of Tokyo. She defeated the LDP candidate and a candidate from the Komeito Party, which is a coalition⁷ partner with the LDP.

Michael Cucek says this could make governing difficult.

“She goes in an extremely difficult political situation. She defied her own party in running, and thus cannot rely on the assemblymen who are LDP members or Komeito members, the other party of the coalition, and so she has no allies.”

Koike promised an administration different from the ones before. "I would like, together with all of you, to run a metropolitan⁸ administration the likes of which have never been seen before," she said.

Cucek says Koike faces the possibility that costs for the Summer Olympics could rise sharply. During her campaign, she said she wanted the national government to pay more of the Olympic costs.

One of Koike’s first duties will be to attend the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. There she is to accept the Olympic flag as the next host of the games.

Words in This Story

plagiarism – n. taking someone else’s work and presenting it as one’s own

diet – n. Japan’s legislature, which has two houses

participants – n. those who take part in something

astoundingly – adv. surprisingly, causing wonder

metropolitan – adj. related to a city and surrounding suburban areas

1 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

2 plagiarism   

n.剽窃，抄袭

参考例句：

• Teachers in America fight to control cheating and plagiarism.美国老师们努力对付欺骗和剽窃的问题。
• Now he's in real trouble.He's accused of plagiarism.现在他是真遇到麻烦了。他被指控剽窃。

3 misused   

v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用

参考例句：

• He misused his dog shamefully. 他可耻地虐待自己的狗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had grossly misused his power. 他严重滥用职权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

8 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。