Will Anthony Bianchi become the first foreign-born mayor in Japan?
According to Japan Today, Anthony Bianchi, a man born in America who later became a naturalized Japanese citizen and city assemblyman in Aichi Prefecture's Inuyama City, is aiming to become a mayor:
In the race, voters will choose a successor to Yoshihiro Ishida, 61, who quit as city mayor after serving for more than 11 years to run in the prefecture's gubernatorial election scheduled for next February.
If elected, Anthony Bianchi, a 48-year-old former Inuyama city assembly member originally from Brooklyn, New York, will be the first person born in the West to become a Japanese municipality head, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
Bianchi has pledged to further promote education reforms and to ensure greater participation of citizens in municipal politics.
Bianchi and the seven others are all independent candidates. If no one garners at least one-fourth of total valid ballots cast on the day of the election, the city will hold a new election by late February, Inuyama city officials said.
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Bianchi, whose wife is Japanese, became a naturalized Japanese citizen in 2002 and won a seat in the Inuyama assembly in April 2003 with the largest number of ballots ever cast in the city assembly election of 3,302.
Speaking to supporters at his election office on Sunday morning, Bianchi said in Japanese, "This election is a turning point for Inuyama to move forward or step back. I want the city's future to be in the hands of people, not of a few specific people" belonging to certain groups.
Bianchi has said that he is running as a completely independent candidate to provide "a legitimate alternative" to voters to meet the "real needs of people."
As a foreign-born candidate, Bianchi said, "I don't have the same kind of 'shigarami' (obligation or indebtedness). Maybe other people have it." He also said his other strength is that people tolerate his behavior which is "a little bit more direct" than that of native-born Japanese.
But on the fact that he may become the first Westerner to govern a Japanese municipality, Bianchi said, "I don't think that is such an important thing…It's just a footnote."
Considering the fact that Bianchi was a very popular candidate in his election for the city assembly, it is not a huge stretch to consider him a real contender for the mayor's office. Does Anthony have what it takes, and will Inuyama's Japanese voters elect a foreigner as their mayor?
[Want to find out more about Anthony Bianchi? Check out this informative post about Bianchi at Mutant Frog or his official website (in Japanese). ]
