Join us in this episode of "Unpacking Japan" as we explore Jon's remarkable transition from a newcomer in Japan to a naturalized politician. Jon shares his initial motivations for moving to Japan, his cultural acclimation, and his unexpected foray into Japanese politics.
Check out Jon's articles:
https://www.turning-japanese.info/2017/11/hashiru.html
https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2023/03/20/life-lessons-from-a-naturalized-japanese-politician/
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https://www.buzzsprout.com/2158416
https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japan
https://www.x.com/unpackingjapan
https://www.tiktok.com/@unpackingjapan
https://youtube.com/@unpackingjapan
https://youtube.com/@unpackingjapanshorts
Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more engaging discussions from all corners of Japanese life.
youtube.com/@unpackingjapan
Join us in this episode of "Unpacking Japan" as we explore Jon's remarkable transition from a newcomer in Japan to a naturalized politician. Jon shares his initial motivations for moving to Japan, his cultural acclimation, and his unexpected foray into Japanese politics.
Check out Jon's articles:
https://www.turning-japanese.info/2017/11/hashiru.html
https://shingetsunewsagency.com/2023/03/20/life-lessons-from-a-naturalized-japanese-politician/
Follow us on our social media:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2158416
https://www.instagram.com/unpacking_japan
https://www.x.com/unpackingjapan
https://www.tiktok.com/@unpackingjapan
https://youtube.com/@unpackingjapan
https://youtube.com/@unpackingjapanshorts
Make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more engaging discussions from all corners of Japanese life.
youtube.com/@unpackingjapan
Welcome to Unpacking Japan. I'm Toby. And today across of me, I have John. John, thank you very much for coming. You came all the way from Ibaraki. You're originally from Canada. And today you working as a perpetual like on a perpetual Council of Ibaraki prefecture as a politician. And before that, you were elected as well, in some capacity. And but that's not all you've done so far. There's a long history before that. Could you introduce yourself a little bit more and how you got here and why Japan and why politics? Okay. Uh, I come from Canada originally from the province of Saskatchewan. I spent most of my time in Canada in a small town called Whymark. Actually, technically not a town. It's a hamlet. Okay. Uh, population of about 170 people come from a big family, 11 brothers and sisters. 12, ten brothers and sisters. 11 kids. My father was a minister, um, from the Mennonite religion. Not very common. Mm hmm. And my mother was a housewife. When I was 17, I went on a student exchange to Germany, and that experience kind of opened up my eyes that I really wanted to travel. When I. When I graduated from a high school, I worked for a couple of years, earn some money, went back to Germany so that I could actually learn German properly. Mm hmm. And then it was time to go to university. So I went back to Canada for university. University of Regina. Regina? Mm hmm. Uh, I studied music education, and mostly opera is what I studied. Well, we heard you sing a little bit before we start recording. Yeah, You've got a good boy. I love karaoke. And then, uh, the reason I was going to university was so that I could get a teaching degree, because I kind of figured that one of the best ways to travel would be to teach. So initially, I was not looking to come to Japan. I was kind of looking all over and I hadn't even thought of Japan. My my roommate at the time got a book and it was a bunch of advertisements from all around the world for teaching opportunities. And, you know, all of the requirements for like legitimate schools required five years of experience. And I just didn't want to bother. But there were places in China, Korea and Japan where you didn't you just needed a degree of some kind and you could you could teach. So I talked to a bunch of people and they all more or less steered me towards Japan because this was in 1991. Okay. And this was like the top of the economic bubble, they call it. And the salaries were incredible. When I when I came like I was wouldn't even get out of bed for less than ¥6,000 an hour. Well, that was when I was like, it's more down to the. Yeah, maybe 3000. 4000 would be a pretty good job these days. So I started out I started teaching English, but like, I found that I wasn't learning Japanese so much. And this kind of was a disappointment because I spent some time in Germany, learn German, spent some time in France, learn French. So, um, I kind of realized that I needed to get out of the teaching business. So I looked around and I thought, well, you know, in the city of Scuba, where I was living, uh, a lot of foreigners, why not open up a bar? So I opened up a Oh, from teaching to bar owner. Yeah, well, you know, my my opportunities at the time, really, like, I didn't have, like, computer programing or something like that or art or, you know, some other skill which would, like, get me into a company per say or a research institute. Um, and so the reality was, is that if I wasn't going to teach, I had to do something that didn't require some kind of special education. Mm hmm. And yeah, I saw a need. There were lots of foreigners opened up the place, business boomed, did really well. But then they changed the drunk driving laws. And the city where the city of Cuba, where I was living, like, basically when I opened up my bar, if you didn't have a parking lot, you didn't have a bar. I mean, everybody drove drunk all the time. So these are at times long gone, long gone. This was like late nineties, actually. And then in the early 2000, they changed the law. Initially, it was a fine of ¥50,000. And lose your license for a month. Well, that was so it basically nobody cared. And more importantly, the police just never checked. Like you. You had two big pushes one week in Auburn, in summer and in August, and then one week just before Christmas. So this was like the, the, um, born in Chi season. Yeah, it's similar in Europe I guess, where they were more strict around the holidays, specific events because they know people will have a temptation to drive drunk. So when they changed the law, they initially changed it to ¥1,000,000. Fine. And lose your license for a year. And like within two or three years they changed that to ¥2 million and lose your license for two years. But more importantly, they started checking all the time. So I had cop cars around my bar every day, every day for two years, solid. And this is like, yeah, my my business went down 70% overnight, like year on year from July 1st when they started to the next July 1st, 70% decrease in sales. If people stay home, drink at home, and, you know, people change their habits. So in the end, I had a really big bar and no customers. So how long can a guy last? So I said, okay, screw that. Gave up the bar and I had three kids at the time and owed a lot of money to the bank. So, uh, my wife and I, we scrambled and we came out okay in the end. But I mean, there were times when they shut off the power. We had no electricity. That's rough. So that's. That was bad. And, you know, when it comes time for Christmas and you're like, wrapping up because lots of people would quite cold. Well, anyway, you're wrapping up blocks of wood for your kids presents, you know? Yeah, it was pretty brutal, you know, But, you know, in the end, I opened up a company and I was selling products to researchers. So it's Cuba's main economic and income income would be from research. So we have 50 plus National Institutes and another 150 private tourism research institutes. Yeah. Plus a pretty decent university. And so we have a we had a lot of well, we have a lot of foreigners. And at the time you had these guys, the sales guys, they didn't speak any English. And so, you know, I just started telling people, yeah, I'll, I'll buy whatever you want, you know. And so the, the system was is that whatever they wanted I would go and get for them and then I would charge 20% above my costs. And, you know, there were situations where people could see on the Internet that their item in the United States would be like $1,000. And the Japanese companies were charging ¥600,000. Yeah, right. And so, like I was charging 1200 dollars, you know, I still save a lot. Yeah. Just so so actually, I was undercutting the competition reasonably well. Mm hmm. So, yeah, kind of how I got into that business. And I did that for a while, and then I was doing rewriting. So these Japanese researchers, they have to publish and they have to publish in English. So many of them, their English is good. But what would happen is that they would send in their documents, their, their publications, and the the peer reviewers wouldn't even read it. They just say, you know, get this, it's not native, it's native Czech, you know. And so in the meantime, somebody else was working on the same same idea and they would publish first. And because the Japanese guy lost like a couple of weeks or a month from the time that they submitted their draft to the time that they actually got it published. And in many cases the publications would just say, No, no, this is too late. You know, that's bad for the researcher, but also for universities and funding for everybody, you know. And so then I started doing doing this as well, uh, in the meantime, uh, I was whining and complaining to anybody who would listen about how troublesome, shall we say, the police were and how they were killing the nightlife, which was true. But at the time you weren't owning the bar at that time, I would already stop the bar. You know, I just remember, you know, all saying things like, if I had half a brain, I would run for politics myself and a friend said, Well, you know, you do have half a brain, so yeah, you should try it. So I did. But yeah, so this is basically how you went through many stages to get to interested into politics. But to do that in Japan, you need to be a Japanese citizen. I cannot do this on a foreign passport. That was the first hurdle. So you've become a Japanese citizen? I am actually a Japanese citizen, yes. Um, how does that work in Japan? Can you tell us a bit about the process? So at the time you had to either have Japanese blood of some, some sort like going back to grandparents is okay or be married to a Japanese national and so, you know, married to a Japanese, of course, that wasn't that wasn't such a big issue. You had to be in Japan for five years. You had to have no connection to the Yakuza. You had to have a clean police record, had to pay all your taxes, had to show that you had an income, these kinds of things. And most importantly, you had to promise to give up your previous citizenship. I think it's still, from what I researched a bit, it's quite similar to what the conditions are still today. So these days the conditions have changed a little bit. Okay. So they adopted a little bit to a more modern era. Well, they just made it a little bit easier. So nowadays you only have to have lived in Japan for three years If you've been if you're married to a Japanese national, five years, if you're not and there is no more, there's no requirement anymore for you to have some connection to. You don't need the blood anymore. Okay. Right. So, I mean, you get two years knocked off if you are married to a Japanese citizen, but you know, it's not a requirement anymore. So you went through that process, you applied. Are there like any exams you need to go through or do they just basically look at your application? You you have to do all kinds of paperwork. There's a big questionnaire. You have to write. You have to write an essay about why you want to become Japanese in Japanese. But that could be, technically speaking, written by someone that speaks Japanese for you. Oh, no, I would never do that. Yeah, nobody wouldn't. Nobody would know and nobody would do that. I see. So once you're through, you get the Japanese passport, right? You're officially a Japanese citizen and then that suddenly grants you what kind of new rights. So the right to vote would be one and the right to get come back to Japan. And like this really became apparent during the COVID pandemic that people who had their permanent residency, like I know of one girl, for example, she went to visit her parents in Jamaica in March. And like while she was in Jamaica, they closed the border. You know, this is like 2020 in March. And then suddenly she couldn't come back, even though she had permanent residence. She lived here for 14 years. All her stuff was here and all of a sudden she just can't go back. Can't come back. Right. Where is the Japanese nationals? Yeah, they could all come back, you know, So that was I guess, a wake up, a wake up call for a lot of people, I assume. And that also, besides the right to vote then grants you the right to actually join the political right landscape here in Japan. If you can vote, you can become a politician. So they're kind of together, my guess. So you start off from this idea of, oh, I could be a politician myself and kind of try to have an impact on this. And what was what is a how is this how is it structured? What is the lowest level in Japan? Do you start like at the city level? Do you start at the regional level? So we would call it a municipal level, I guess, or this is city or town village. And then there is the regional level, which would be the prefecture, and then there is the national level, the diet. And in the diet they have the two two houses, the upper and lower house, and you're eligible for all of them. Yes. Okay. I could technically become prime minister. Oh, yeah. Interesting. Yeah, unlikely. Unlikely, but interesting. Yeah. So what, once you had that in mind and you had your passport, how long did it take to get the citizenship? From the time I started working on it, I had to get all kinds of documents from Canada. So my. My birth certificate. The birth certificate, birth certificates of all of my brothers and sisters, ten of them my parents, wedding certificate and birth certificates. So this took time to to gather all the documentation. So for anyone who wants to do that, they need to plan time. Well, okay, You have to assume it's going to take a little bit of time. So, I mean, if you if you know that you're going to you're going to need these documents anyway, then yeah, this is what you should probably what you should do. But actually the way to start is just to go to your local school and look at the local. Well, it's a federal office. What would you even call it? The Ministry of the Interior, I think. Okay, we see the technical term for it. Uh, so there'd be a branch here in Osaka as well. Uh, but pretty much any major, major city will have a home. So I'll go there and just talk to somebody about what you will need and they'll give you a pamphlet and it will list all of the things that are required. And the reason why I say you should go get this document first is that each country is a little bit different. So, for example, Iran doesn't actually allow you to give up your citizenship. So you can write a letter saying that, yeah, I don't want to be Iranian anymore, but they don't care. Right? And so on. So you need to check for your own country, right? Yeah, right. And plant time documents. So from the time I got everything together, had all of the, the, the documents filled out to then submitting it, uh, from the time that the guy said, okay, now we're going to submit these documents. Then it was six months. We had to wait for the national office to give the okay, so the six months pass, you get the passport and you come back to your idea of like, okay, I want to run for office. What was on your mind at that time? What did you want to do? Why did you want to run for office? Um, one of the things that I noticed about the whole, uh, drunk driving situation was that how similar it was to what happened in Canada when I was a kid? So around 1980, 1980, I was about 17, 18 years old, and they suddenly started doing the same thing. So like when I was a really small kid, like every year, you know, the story would go around, Oh, did you hear about so-and-so? You know, you hit the ditch and roll this car and died and he was drunk as a skunk. Mm hmm. Right. And then in 1980, all of a sudden, the cops started Boston people all the time, like checking people. And what the bars did is that they got together and they went to their local city offices and they they said, hey, you know, we've been paying taxes. Help us out. You know, like, come on, we're dying here. Mm hmm. And so you see the various plans, one, one plan, which was quite successful, is called Designated Driver, for example. And the cities would actually give a have a budget for the bars where they would, uh, have a one guy drive. So a group of friends would come to the bar, one guy would be designated driver and he'd get a little button saying that he was a designated driver. And then when he went to the counter, all his soft drinks were free. And this was paid by the city initially. Oh, that's cool, right? They did all kinds of PR about designated drivers, you know, posters in the, in the washrooms, um, TV commercials, these kinds of things. This is all funded by various levels of government. Right? And so like I, I initially like when the, when the problem started with the police in in scuba well actually all of Japan uh I went and talked to other bar owners and I was saying, hey look, I've seen this story before, you know, this is what we should be doing. This is how we, how we should be getting some help, because if we don't do something, we're all going to die here. And they just said, Nah, we're not interested. You know what? Why the the the standing out now gets hit, right? Typical. Yeah. In Japan, if you stand out, you get hammered down. There you go. And they just didn't there was no movement like in all of Japan. And you know, if we had done this we'd be like the only city in all of Japan that was actually trying to do something, you know, that I heard about. And so nobody wanted to be first, I guess. I mean, I don't know why they didn't do it, didn't make any sense to me. But, you know, then I started looking at, uh, at other places and it's like, there's a boat, a 20 year time lag between, uh, some kind of policy changing in the West and then the same policy changing in Japan. So they legalize something in the West. 20 years later it happens, or it's like same sex marriage, for example, you know, uh, so you see, you see these social trends and like I say, it's about a 20 year time like, so it's in a sense I can see the future, right? So I just look back at like, well, you know, this is what happened 20 years ago and like smoking in public buildings, for example, uh, when I first started university, depending on the professor, you were allowed to smoke in the classroom. In the classroom? Well, right. And then suddenly the university said, You can't smoke in any of the buildings. You have to go outside, you know, And this would have been about 1997. No, not 99, 95 ish. And so really started 2015. Yeah, something like that. It changed it, you know, ten. Uh, and then they actually said, okay, you can't, you can't smoke in bars and restaurants, you know, and it's like this was been in the early, early 2000s. And so 20, 20, 2020 was cool. 2024 Yeah. I can't remember exactly, but it's like, yeah, it's about, it's about 20 years. That's interesting. So a theory to keep an eye on. Well, I mean, it's not going to be 100% true, but it's, it's quite true. The pattern works. And so you notice this and then you're like, okay, I've seen solutions done in other countries, and you decided that you want to try to push for those solutions to be applied in Japan, too. That's not really how I approached it. The way I saw it was is that Japan's problems aren't unique. The same problems are everywhere. Like just about every country has a drunk driving problem. For example, uh, what I wanted to do was to present foreign solutions and whether they were accepted in Japan or not, that really wasn't my, my goal to actually. But show them, but just to let them know, you know, if you're going to do something, you know, why not look abroad? Why not see what other people have done? Like, why are we reinventing the wheel, I guess is what I was kind of asking. So this is what you felt they would do. That's how like very domestic minded and yeah, and pretty much still are. But you know, they have a term called Daihatsu, which is foreign or public or pressure. Foreign pressure, you know, outside pressure. Outside pressure. Right. So in fact, yeah, sometimes this is what's necessary. Other times they just like now, you know, we should probably do this like nobody was pressuring the government to to make the bars go smoke free. Nobody was pressuring. Not from outside. That was something from inside. Okay, So it's again, not 100% true. So so for you to bring those ideas in front of the eyes of other elected officials and see if change happens, you need to get elected yourself first. Sure. So how how does that work? Can you run us through the process a little bit? So there are some criteria. First off, you have to be 25 years, 25 years old or older, and you have to have, depending on the level that you are running at, at the city level, you had to have ¥300,000 as a deposit. What is this money for? And it's to prevent joke candidates, I guess, or cause I just want to irrelevant relevant candidates. So the deal is, is that everybody gets the money back as long as they have 10% of the last winning seat, last winning candidate. So in North America, I don't know about what's going on in Europe and North America generally. You have at the city level, you'll you'll split up the city into how many constituencies. And then within each constituency, you'll run a mini election to see who is going to represent that location, that area, that constituency. And that's not what they do here. What they do here is they have like one big constituency. And then however many seats are available. Okay. So in the bigger cities like Osaka, you probably have three or four wards and each ward will probably elect 10 to 15 candidates. Okay, councilors. That's probably I haven't research Osaka I don't know how so, but they are limited and they want to try to get people that are just there for fun out, right? It doesn't always work, right? I recall there's this one guy who dresses up as a rango cool from commits and we I buy the anime okay and he's I think somewhere elected in some ward of Tokyo could be um but it's mostly for for show I think I don't know how serious yes but so you put down that 300,000 you're above 25 is any other condition. Clean sheet. Clean record problem. Yeah, but you don't have to prove any of those things. Like I'm, I'm not really 100% sure because it's not really much. You know, I think those are really the two main criteria. So like I mean you could still I think there's nothing wrong with you being in the Yakuza as interest because you don't have to prove anything. Right. So it's like ¥300,000 and be over 25. And that's and I think you have to have paid your taxes. Come to think. Yeah. Have to pay your taxes. And so once you meet those criteria, yeah. Um, you have to go apply and say I want to put my name in the ballot. And so about a month before the election, they will have a set to make an explanation donation meeting where they will give people the, the documents that they have to fill out. So there is a bunch of documents they have to fill and there's also a booklet on what the election laws are, what you can and cannot do during your candidacy. So, for example, one thing, you're not allowed to go around campaigning until it's actually the campaign. The election is campaign has actually started. There is a start date. Interesting. I think it's quite similar to some other countries in the West to them. Yeah. So, you know, the thing is, is that, you know, people are handing out their cards, their macy, uh, and they will say things like, Oh, I'm thinking of running when everybody knows. Yeah, you're running. Come on, dude. You know what? I'll just plant the seed in people's mind, right? And, you know, So it's okay to tell your friends? Yeah, I'm going to run that You can't go around to the public to to people you don't know. And you technically, you're not supposed to put fliers in people's mail either. Mm hmm. Uh, except people do anyway. And they just. All this is, like, for information purposes only, Right? But in the end, it's like, Yeah, but in and it's, and running every peptic ulcer witness. So I mean a lot of these like kind of moments or activities in, in the election process once you get everything ready and about a week before the start date they, they will have another uh they, they will have a inspection. So you bring in all your documents, they'll go through it and they check, you know, is this, this, this. You have everything you know. And if you don't, they say, Oh yeah, please fill out this form, you need this or whatever. They'll look at your poster, uh, and basically give you the okay or make you redo stuff, whatever. So that on the day of they do an, another inspection on that, uh, election start date, the kickoff date, but it's already been done, everything has already been checked. Right. So it goes pretty smoothly and then the campaign starts and the campaign starts. How long is a campaign typically? So this was for city council. So the city level, so the municipal level, it's one one week of campaigning and then that and then the election date. So you start on a Sunday and Saturday evening, the following week at 8:00, you're done. You're allowed to campaign from eight in the morning until eight at night, not after. So these kinds of rules. Mm hmm. I want to talk a little bit about the campaign, because. Sure, I think especially for people living in Japan, they will notice mostly two things. One is people driving around in cars or standing on street corners, uh, with a lot of maybe volunteers or paid workers, I don't know, waving at you, handing out some tissue with a little bit of a note and saying, uh, names out loud. Yeah. From So my Japanese is not perfect, but what I can understand often is they repeat the name of the candidate quite often, but not necessarily what the person stands for. Right. And the other thing that we see a lot are, uh, these panels with a lot of photos and a slogan for each, um, like a poster. Right? So I want to get into both a little bit, but let's start with, uh, the driving around. Yeah, I don't really understand the purpose of this. Neither do I. So I'm walking in the street, and it happened to me where I was trekking somewhere in the countryside in Chicago. And I'm by myself, Miles around. And this little K car drives by with two people waving at me. I'm like, Do I look like I'm able to vote here? I mean, you certainly. I know, I know. You never know. Uh, I never make assumptions, but. And you might be married to someone who can. So. But what is like waving at me is not going to make me interested in whatever they have to say, Right? If I don't even know what this is about. So how do you know how this tradition of driving around started and why people do it today? When you hear people planning their campaigns, why do they say we should put budget on that? I don't know. You don't know? I don't know. Still a mystery. Yeah, I don't do it. So in your personal campaign, what do you do? I at the city level, I rode around on a bike. I had a flag with my name on it. And my slogan, my slogan is, I still do scuba. I love scuba. Uh, and I just stood on street corners and wave to passing cars. In the morning. I would stand in front of a research center. So I told you, we have all these research research centers. So I chose the biggest ones and the ones with the easiest access, whatever. And I would stand at the corner in the morning. So from
from around 8:00 in the morning till 9:00, when all the workers have arrived, I would wave to people, say hello, whatever some put. Sometimes people would wave back. Sometimes people just ignore me. Anyway, it doesn't matter. You have a sash, right? So you've probably seen the sash as well. So that's an indication that you're a politician. So I would actually start, you know, like or like I said, there were all these like kind of moments, uh, I would have my sash with my name on it and I would turn it inside out. And I just have like a slogan, like good environment or, you know, clean energy, something like this, you know, and people it's not a it's not illegal to to wear a sash, you know, as long as you don't say, as long as you don't have your name on it. Right. You know. So this is official. Yeah. Yes. So you can't wear the sash with your name on it. You can't have a banner with your name on it. These things are all illegal until the moment from the kickoff kickoff day. Right. So I would go already like a week or so beforehand and I would hit the various institutes. What was the initial reaction to see, uh, a foreign, a campaigning, uh, well know, like, what's he doing? Is this for real? This a joke? Is this a joke? I mean, this is like before YouTube, right? You know, uh, so people would just like what, you know, but then they would talk to you, talk to people and say, Oh, did you see that guy, you know, like around the coffee or them, you know, Did you see that guy? Like, what's that all about? So you had the power of word of mouth, actually. Oh, indeed. Indeed. You know, and got to hand it to my blond hair, blue eyes. Yeah. Yeah. People talked, so that's what I was doing. So you were standing in front of, uh, these research centers, meeting great people, cycling around. Did you also go down the path of the poster or. You have to, but y you don't have to. But these these poster boards that you were talking about. Yeah, of course. They're. The city pays for it. The city pays? Yeah. This is the ¥300,000. Okay. Right. So, uh, the ¥300,000 would cover the cost of the posters. Basically. And if you're a joke candidate and like, so in scuba, the the last winning candidate gets about 2000 votes. Mm hmm. So if you have 150 votes, you lose the 300,000, and that covers the posters. Okay, fair enough. Right. Uh, and at the regional level, so the the Ibaraki level, it's 600,000. And I think at the national level, it's something like a million or a million and a half, something like that, you know? So are these, uh, posters impactful? Do you get, uh, or is it just to be seen basically, uh, letting people know your full. Yes. Because there are enough people who are going to vote, they will go and read these boards. So it's usually some 67 year old standing in front. Mm hmm. And they are reading everything very closely, you know? And so you have to imagine, again, you see all of these people's faces and they all look very similar. That is to say they all look Japanese and like, whoa, what's this blond guy doing there? You know? So how can you not read it? How can you not just go like, what's up with this? So you really had this advantage of standing out. Indeed. So the nail that stood out wasn't hammered, done was talked about. Right? It was more like, we want to know more about this now. Yeah. And, you know, to be blunt, I think a lot of my advantage is because I, I, I looked pretty close to Bill Clinton like there is I look course enough to Bill Clinton that, you know, when I have his book and in this book he has a bunch of pictures from when he was a kid and I. I look at those pictures, it's like, that's me. But I don't remember being there. That's how that's how similar like when we were when we were 20 years old, Japanese people were making the connection like, oh, he's sure. Sure. And you know, personally, you know, everybody says, Oh, you look like blah, blah, blah. You know, And as so many people have, you know, people have just thrown out so many names, it's like, what? You know, he's black. Like, I don't look like him. But Bill Clinton like this kept hearing this over and over and over again. And I didn't even really believe it myself so much, except when I was running my bar. Some TV company came and they said, Yeah, somebody said that you look a lot like Bill Clinton. And so is it okay if we come and do a little, uh, shoot? And it was like a two minute segment of like Bill Clinton's bartender in Japan and scuba, you know. And so I said, Yeah, you know, why not? Okay. So the the the they took the shoot, they did the shoot, and then they threw a picture of Clinton up there. And it was like, oh, yeah, I do think Bill Clinton that was like the the moment when it was very clear. Yeah. Anyway, and all of this led to your first election. Yeah. How is it on the day they pull the ballots, how do you is everyone together in a room? Do you just wait at home and then they call you you've been elected or how would you find out? So when I got elected, they had the internet was already a thing. So this is 2008 was my first election. So they posted everything on the internet and initially I was in a in a friend's bar and we just looked on the web page until finally my name came up and I and I saw the cut off at that point was about 1700 votes. And I think the first the first, uh, count, I'm thinking I had like 1500 already when they first posted, and then they did like three or four more updates. And each time it goes up and it's like, okay, yeah, I'm going to get elected. You know, it's like, Oh, you made it, you know? Yeah, but this is when the job really starts. Yeah, I guess so. Once you're an elected official in Japan, does it become a full time job or is it, um, more something you do? Uh, you have duties you have to fulfill, but you can run, uh, your own day job or right at the, at the municipal and at the regional level. It's okay to continue running your job at the national level. You have to resign. Okay. So if you're like a shot or if you're some kind of CEO or whatever, you have to quit because it's a full time job. And in the end, I mean, it is a full time job, but you're only actually required to be at the city level. I calculated it's about 150 hours a year that you have to actually be present. 150 hours. Yeah. All right. Right. So it's it's not that much, but, you know, it's the same like with many jobs. Like, do researchers ever really stop thinking about their research? No. It's a 24 hour a day kind of position. It's the same kind of idea. And I imagine, you know, you probably go home, too. And it's like, oh, you know what? Tomorrow I should do this. Yes. Right. So, you know, is anything ever really just an eight hour a day job, you know? So McDonald's, I guess, maybe. Um, yeah, Yeah. These kind of positions. Sure. You're paying for manual labor, right? In your case. And what were some of your duties once you were, uh, what do people ask of you? What do you have to contribute to duties? Not so much. Uh, there were expectations, But if you didn't do any do any of these things, you know, there's. They can't fire you, right? As long as you go to the go to the meetings. They can't fire you, you know, and you look presentable like you have to wear a jacket, whatever. You have to wear a suit and tie. Yeah. You know what? You what what I ended up doing to be to the to be fair, my, my real job was explaining government to lay people. How does government work? Because people say, Oh, you're in government and we need this and we need that. And I said, Oh, well, if you really need that, then this is the person you talk to. You go to this this person. I mean, sometimes it was like people would ask me, like for they needed a drain unblocked because, you know, it rained and it was always a big puddle in front of their house, you know. And so then I was like, well, I'm at the city office anyway, you know, And I would just go say, Yeah, okay, right here on the map they are saying that the this train needs, needs unclogging and two days later somebody is there and then I get a phone call and say, Oh, John, you're amazing. And it's like, you know, if you'd done this yourself, they would have done the same. You know, it's like, I'm not so amazing. What was it? But then maybe first surprise you took you maybe off guard when you entered the world of Japanese politics, something you may have not expected because you went in there with the intention of bringing foreign ideas to the table and see if a Japanese group of councilmen would be interested in hearing them, engaging with them and applying them possibly to them. And the biggest surprise was how many people assumed I couldn't read. And still today, you know, like I'm I am at the regional level, like it's a big deal. And they still ask me or like they're really shocked. Oh, wow, you can read kanji and it's like you, me, you expect someone to be able to get elected to the regional level and be illiterate, you know? And when you think about it, it's like, I guess it's possible, you know, there is no test. So in principle, I guess it's possible for someone to be illiterate and still get elected. But like, how long is that going to last? I don't know. Anyway, my How was the reception then to your foreign ideas to going back to the issue was, um, the drunk driving and your ideas of, uh, introducing them to a system such as, uh, the designated driver. And so I never really got to do anything about that, you know, would at best I asked for the night bus like, our city isn't that big.
All the bus services shut down at 10:00, and it's just like, you know. No, my bar only started getting busy at 11 at night. Not at seven, not at eight and 11. That's when people came. So, you know, we need a night bus and no, not going. It didn't work. You know, in spite of the fact that many of the lines being like 97% in the red, you know, so you can't run another bus line at night in the red light. Why not? Hmm. So, yeah, and I guess in in this respect, I was a little surprised how negative the administration. So you have, uh, you people think I'm the government, right, as an elected official. And that's not really what the position is not in, not in Japan. And I'm kind of thinking that it's similar in the West as well, that in fact, the politicians are there to to provide oversight. So we're like an immune system to the real government, which would be the civil service. Okay. Okay. And so in the end, we can bring ideas to the civil service. Uh, and what will happen? Like, there's an official way to do this. It's called Punch someone. It's question period, sort of. And every councilor at the city level is given an hour, an hour to discuss with the administration in public. Uh, an idea, some ideas. And, uh, in the end, they found out it was all just a dance, all choreographed, right? So the first time that I did my punch, someone, uh, I had to have a meeting with the people, and I had to tell them what I wanted. And then we had a discussion. And so they said, Okay, so this is more or less what you were going to ask. And they said, Yeah, that's what I'm going to ask. And then I said, Okay, this is basically what our what we were going to say right? So I knew beforehand what they were going to say. I knew beforehand what I was going to say, obviously on stage. So it was staged, you know, in a sense, but it's part of the process. And the end result is, is that no matter how good your idea is, the initial reaction is going to be. No, it's always negative. Oh, right. And there is a good reason for it. And if an if if you have an idea that you that they accept immediately. Yeah, yeah. We're going to do that And it's such a great idea. Well what happens six months later they realize, oh yeah, it's a lot harder than we thought, you know, like now that we've actually looked into it. Yeah, we can't, we can't do this. So they don't want to say yes and kind of commit to something that they cannot guarantee us. Right. So this is the process. They say, no, they investigate and then they implement and cynically then they also take all the credit. But that's that's not really what happens. But do you feel that this is a system that's working well or do you think it's, uh, for example, perhaps slowing down a process of adapting to modern times that are kind of moving very fast? I think you're asking the wrong person. You should ask yourself, what do you think about this system? Like, look around you, look at the streets. Are they broken? You know, are the schools working? Is the power power grid up and running? You know, are there any real problems that you have in your daily life that you think that the government should do something about? Yeah, it's a good way to look at it. And I think there is a perhaps, uh, looking at it from the outside, the impression that a lot of the, the, those systems that we just talked about do not have a problem now, but some of them seem to be aging and it seems like the whole population is aging, the whole population is aging, but with it also infrastructure. Sure, the trains are working smoothly, but on very old systems. For how long can this be maintained? The school buildings, for example, are working but have an infrastructure as well that's aging. Uh, again, I'm looking at this from the outside. So are these common points of discussion among officials and what are seen as some of the priorities that need to be addressed. Uh, I think you would have to talk to the mayor to really understand what is being discussed. Right? So that's interesting because what you're implying, if I understand it correctly, is that even as an elected official, you're really only involved in one part of the governing body and of the political system, and you operate within this fear. And then these kind of stage discussion you mentioned are for a way to transmit information in exchange with another body that is then again, going to exchange with another body. But is is there any place that really regroups and puts everyone at the same table and like, let's figure this out? When you say everyone, who do you mean? Who is everyone. Mhm. Well, you mentioned, uh, so you were an elected, uh, councilor and a city councilor or now a prefectural councilor and you have also the lawmakers. Yeah. Um, and you have people that are, let's say, elected officials like the mayor or civil servants maybe. I don't know if there's anyone else to, to consider, but. Well, so I meet with all of these people on a regular basis. Uh, generally the, the councilors kind of stick together. That is to say we don't hang so much with the with the governor or the mayor. Right. But we do have opportunities. We're giving up many opportunities to to talk to the the because of the you know, the department heads at the city level. We had a very nice system where after every, uh, session we'd have a nice dinner and all of the butchers, the department heads would be there and you could kind of talk to them about like what their ideas were like, what are the what are the policies which are bubbling up, right? And the mayor as well have a chance to talk to the mayor. And it's like, yeah, you know, hey, I think this probably might be a good idea. And, you know, next time, next time I give a speech, this is basically what I'm going to talk about, like, how do you feel about this? You know, And, you know, generally it's a frank discussion, but it's off the record, Right. And so, you know, they might be a little bit more able to to promise without promising, you know, kind of, oh, I heard what you said and I'll look into it kind of, for example. Yeah. Um, do you feel like a lot changed when you so you've been reelected four times at the city level? The city level, Yeah. And then you decided, okay, now it's time to to go one step higher. You went to the prefecture level? Actually, actually, I tried once before to get to the prefecture level and lost. I did really well, but I still lost to the conditions to be elected in the number of seats, for example. Right. Are more limited. Right. So at the city level now, we have 28. When I first started, there were 33 elected officials, council members, and then they reduced to 28. And at the prefecture level, the first time I ran, there were four seats and I came in fifth out of seven people, you know, and I missed 600 votes, like to be number four even. And that really shocked a lot of people. It's like, wow, that John guy, actually, he's pretty popular, you know, I was disappointed. But at the same time, uh, especially later on, I realized, yeah, that actually was a blessing that I didn't get elected, I wasn't ready, I didn't understand the system well enough that I, I would have like, I would have been a complete fish out of water. So before we get into this system. Yeah. Is it campaigning any different? It's just longer. Longer. So you have longer, More time. Ten days instead of seven. Okay. Not that much longer, but okay. Because you have more ground to cover, too. No, actually, the it's the same system. So I am I am a representative for Scuba City and instead of 28, they're just five. So they increased to five. I see. So between the first election in the second election, they increased by one one vote, one seat, and I came in fourth. So I see. So the system is, uh, there are 33 representatives for Scuba City 2028 for the city itself. Yeah. But then to represent the city at the prefecture level. Yeah. They reduce it to five five. Okay. But it's the same constituency, It's the same like everybody, anybody who used to vote for me, for the city council can still vote for me at the prefectural level. So it's not like you have to get votes from all of the prefectures, Just you have to get virtual votes from people within your constituency to represent you, to represent them at the particular right. So that new system you were about to enter, you said you were not ready for it the first time. And so it was a blessing for you not to get elected. How different is it to the city level? So it's not that I have Well, okay, I have a lot more commitments. I'm I'm a lot busier. So the number of total hours I think now officially it's like 200 hours, perhaps maybe 250 hours a year. But like I am getting invitations to this and that committee meeting or something, you know, every day in the mail, there's like, oh, can you come to do this? You know? And some of it's fun. Like I got invited to a fireworks festival. Front row seats, That's nice with food and everything. And it was like, wow, you know, and it was an amazing firework festival, right? So, you know, not not all all meetings, but a lot of meetings. Mm hmm. And the meetings are a little a little bit longer than they than they used to be. But realistically, I realize now that many of the things that were happening at the city level, like we would be getting these these documents called it can short, which was opinion papers, and we were asked to to pass them. Okay. And in many in many cases, they were a letter to the prefectural governor saying, please change this policy or please implement such and such policy. And some of them were to the Prime Minister, So to the Cabinet, cabinet level, you know, and I kept getting these and it's like, why does anybody care? Why? Why are we getting these things? You know? And I realize now that actually these are a way for grassroots, grassroots movements to pressure politicians at the higher levels to do something that only the higher level politicians can do. So, for example, one of my I just gave a speech in September, and one of my points was that I want to have the prefecture force all of the convenience stores to hide their cigarets. So this is again, this is a an idea from abroad, from from Canada. But it's not just Canada. Australia is doing the same thing and other other European countries are doing the same thing. It's like when you walk into the convenience store, what do you see behind the cash register? Just a lot of Cigarets Right. And uh, what message are we sending our kids about where tobacco fits into society? You know, we are saying, Oh no, no, it's a, it's a legal product and it's very new and it's okay. And it's a kind of a it's an okay to the kids. Like the message that the kids get is like, oh, yeah, tobacco is something that's that's okay. And it's not it really isn't. When you look at all of the negatives, you know, I mean, I notice you didn't smoke. You don't smoke. No, I don't. You know, it's a scourge on our society. It shortens people's lives. So we're having this problem, not enough kids and everybody is retiring. Well, if all of the people stopped smoking, they would have more working, working years, right? We wouldn't need so much imported labor, for example, because people would be healthy longer. Right. You have a heart attack and all of a sudden, Yeah, you know, farming really isn't going to be possible because you you had a heart attack or a stroke. Even like a stroke requires that you have a nurse come in like you're actually taking resources from the society. Right. Anyway, I'm not going to get on my stump about Cigarets. Um, but you made that speech. I made the speech. And I realize now that it's like the of course, the administration said, No, we're not going to do this. Hmm. You know, that's not what they said. Actually, what they said is that, Oh, look at all the things that we are doing to stop people from smoking. And like, only 3% of people started smoking because. They saw the the cigarets behind the counter. That's what the administration said. And if I want to get this passed, one way would be for me to have these you can show these opinion documents passed in many of the other councils, the city councils or the municipal at the municipal level. If if all of the municipal councils pass this document, it's saying that we should hide the cigarets. I mean, what's the government going to do? I mean, he's well, not the governor so much, but like the the Ministry of Health or whoever is in charge of making such a decision, that's going to be a lot of pressure. MM. You know, like if, if 70 or 80% of the population is saying we should be hiding cigarets, right. What are they supposed to do. I mean they can't just ignore that. So I didn't understand that eight years ago than you do now. Now I do. And that's what I actually came to realize after I got elected at the provincial level. So now you basically have a better understanding of how and where to apply pressure if you want to sway the the public opinion, which ultimately is what you know, the public opinion. The political opinion. Political opinion. Yeah. You mentioned, uh, some of the meetings which Yes, can be longer than they, they need. Um, the typical image we have of Japanese meetings may be, uh, as you said, long stretched out and a strong need to reach common agreement that, uh, expressing strong opinions, debating, uh, fiercely an idea is not so much part of it. That's not really what goes on in the in the meetings so much. Mostly it's the reports. So they're saying we spent this much money on this project and money over here. Uh, we had these kinds of situations where, you know, the bullying in the schools, for example, we had these, these many cases. That's what the meetings are mostly are. So it's, uh, mostly sharing information, right. Wouldn't it more efficient than to just make a report and share it instead of spending a lot of time just having one person, uh, vocally share it while so they do publish it and they send it beforehand, so we read it. So, you know, when, when they do make their report, uh, if there is a situation that someone is interested in, they will bring it up and say, okay, you mentioned this many bullying cases, so why don't you do this? Or is it possible to do that? Mm hmm. So this is what's going on already, right? So if they're creating a situation where people can question the government. So like I said, you know, my job is oversight or politician whose job is oversight. Um, the real heavy lifting is done by the civil service. Now, you've, you've been involved in, uh, political sphere for, for quite a few years. Have you noticed a change in trends of, uh, what is important? Are you, You are. I'm not arguing kind of pushing for something to be done about Cigarets. Are there any common themes that come up regularly in the discussions? So renewable energy is becoming big? Uh, there is something called SDGs. Yeah, the famous SDGs, you know. So these, these are topics which come up quite a lot at the prefectural level. Um, the topics are a little bit different because each, each level of government has their own. It's called a bailiwick, their, their heartache, their fields, right? And so, for example, at the city level, the elementary and junior high school is covered at the city level, but high school is covered at the prefectural level and university at the national level. So my, my, the meetings that I am attending, the topics are a little bit a little bit different because they cover just things that the prefecture covers. They don't cover what goes on at the city level anymore. Is there a lot of cooperation between prefectures between, uh, within Japan, or are you really, really operating within Ibaraki? It is more that the cooperation is between the prefectures and the national government and the cities. So Inter Prefecture happens a little bit, especially when it comes to things like. Rivers No. Yeah. Interesting. Well, because a river goes through a couple of different prefectures. So, you know, if one prefecture were to suddenly use all the water, you know, what does what do the prefectures down the down the river do, you know? So you kind of have to have like a agreements between prefectures a little bit roads, but really not so much even the roads, you know, And so I imagine that you have had some very challenging times, too. Um, it's a very demanding job. How do you manage to kind of balance now being in this political sphere? As you said, you don't just clock off and forget about what you're working on with also, you know, personal life since your three kids you mentioned earlier. And that's also a kind of very demanding perhaps, I suppose in the in the end, kids kind of just grow up, right. When you think about your own childhood, your parents told you stuff and you just did what you wanted anyway, right? Mostly, yeah. Yeah. You kind of raise themselves in a sense, you know, and then, you know, you're just kind of a guide as a, as a parent, kind of showing them the way. But if you start to, you know, whip them into place, so to speak. Yeah, that's not a good way to raise kids. So it's been a natural process for you to kind of go into politics and right family life as well. And yeah, it's fine. It's fine. And in fact, I mean, I would even say that the impact it was was more my kids because like, suddenly their father is, you know, this bigwig. I mean, I don't think so, but the other kids don't know that, you know, So. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And so for you personally, other things that you'd like to see develop in the next coming years in the political sphere, the decisions to be made that you think would be important to, to go for the easy answer is that if we do not get a handle on global warming, we're all screwed. I don't care about the aging society of Japan. If the temperature goes to 45 degrees in summertime, we're screwed, You know, so in this respect, there is only one topic that matters. Everything else is just secondary, you know? So, I mean, of course, you have to work on the assumption that we are going to get a handle on the global warming issue. Personally, Yeah, I doubt it. It just humanity is just too stupid, you know? I'm too stupid, right? It's a very complex problem to kind of try to figure out on your own and too many uncontrollable elements, right? Perhaps. Yeah. I mean, you just have to understand what a hypocrite. We all are. Oh, global warming. And then I fly home to see my parents. Come on. Right. If we're really going to get a handle on global warming, this is going to require commitments that I don't know anybody who wants to make it at this point. You know, I mean, in the end, it's just going to happen because society is going to collapse and that's the end of it. You know, So I'm kind of I can see a very dark, dark future. Yeah, Dark future. Yet you're working for a bright one. Yeah. And, um, do you feel like being involved, becoming a Japanese citizen, getting involved into Japanese politics has changed your perspective on the country and its people from when you first arrived? I don't know that it really matters whether I became a politician. I would have changed my ideas anyway, right? So it's just part of being here and looking around and seeing the way things work and trying to understand what's going on in the background. You know, what are the what are the the drive, the driving forces of of society. So I don't think that being a politician is really a requirement for that. But it may have given you interesting insights into what goes on behind closed doors for many people. And yes, brings up a lot of questions in public discourse. Sure. In the media. Yeah. And is there anything about the kind of organization structure and your personal journey through the political sphere that we haven't really discussed that you think will be very interesting to bring up today? So, um, citizenship is something which fascinates me. Uh, we, we don't allow dual citizenship in Japan and there was a time when I really thought it was important. But, you know, with what's going on in the world right now, I really am questioning this like whether Japan actually has got it right, that if you're going to be if you're going to be Japanese, you can't be something else. Right. So just to bring up Israel, you know, I watch the Canadian news every now and again. And so they are reporting that there are Canadians who are killed by by Hamas. And I'm like, well, what were they doing there while they were serving in the military? Like they were at a party. But it was like, you know, their day off from from their military service. And it's like. What do you mean? What are you doing in the Israeli military? Right. Are you Canadian? If you're Canadian and be Canadian, we don't have mandatory military service, you know, just as an example. So the concept of citizenship, what does it mean to basically hold a passport? Right. Right. So like I say, like I'm really questioning now whether dual citizenship is something, even though it is quite common, like commit plant your flag. You know, if you're going to stay in Japan and you want to come back, because one of the things that the passport grants you is the right to return, the right to come home, where is your home? Decide. And if you can't decide, then, yeah, it's fine. You know, stay here for as long as you like. Enjoy yourself. Right. And when you're ready, get your citizenship. That's an interesting take. Sure. For the. How much longer are you currently in elected period. So at the city level and the prefectural level, it's four years and is in your name now six, eight, ten, ten months in like I got elected December 22nd. So I still have a good three years, something like that, three years before the next election, three years in a bit. What will be your goal in those next three years? Something you'd like to achieve? Hmm. Goals. Hey. Well, okay. Yeah, I really would like to. I would like the prefecture to mandate that the Cigarets are not displayed. However, I have a I have a friend who's, like, really heavy into the anti-smoking movement, and he's a lawyer. And one of the things that he said is, yeah, go ahead and do all this right? And then it's going to go to the Supreme Court. So, you know, it's even if you get the the commitment by by the administration to to hide the Cigarets don't expect this to actually be implemented for at least three or four or five years. So like after who knows, I might even be dead by that time before that. So probably let's, let's hope you know, uh, but, uh, thank you very much, John. I think you've given us a very, uh, interesting insight into political life in Japan and how complicated it is, but also how some of the aspects of it work very well. Some of the aspects are complex and to take time as the latest example, you can push for something to be accepted and and brought forward. But then there's still another governing body that has a final say. So whatever we see in the media perhaps, or we read online, uh, maybe it's interesting to take it with a grain of salt and think about what is being done and what is actually happening for this change. And your contribution today really helped, I think, to get a better understanding if if you really want to understand the media, understand that the media will never criticize an advertiser in their publication, Right. So if Toyota is spending a lot of money on ads, you'll never see advertising. You'll never see a critical piece about Toyota, for example. Right. So who's paying? And there is a phrase Cui bene, This is the Latin for who benefits. So when you see these stories yourself, who benefits? And that will kind of help you understand what's really going on. I think that's a good take on it. Thank you again, John, for coming all the way from Boracay. Thank you. Before we before we go, I am hoping that there will be some foreigners living in Japan here who take the idea that it is not just possible. It's it's I don't want to say easy, but become a politician. Get involved. It's a good thing. It's a good thing to have foreign voices, you know, foreign born voices, let's put it that way, you know. So I hope that there are people who watch this and think, oh, gee, yeah, maybe I could do that. I mean, John's a dumb ass if he can do it, I can, you know. Well, you've certainly shown us how to do it. Which steps to go through. Sure. So we have the playbook. Sure. And we know it's possible. So I think hopefully some listeners, some viewers will be inspired by this discussion we had. Sure. And if people are interested in learning how to do this, I've written a blog post. Please put it in the we put it in the description so everyone can access it and have the kind of process written down right on. So I've written two pieces. One is how to get elected and two is what I actually do. So I hope that they will read that. Thank you for that as well. Thank you for our listeners this week. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. And this was unpacking Japan. We'll see you again next week. My.