The Governor of Tokyo
Governor of Tokyo Mr. Shintaro Ishihara was reelected in 2003, winning three million votes or more specifically 3,080,000 votes.
(New York Mayor Mr. Michael Bloomberg received 753,089 votes in 2005.)
Mr. Ishihara is going to run for his third term in the highest public position in Tokyo Prefecture this spring.
(There is no such a post as is officially called the Mayor of Tokyo. More correctly, there is no such a city as is officially called the Tokyo City. The Governor of Tokyo Prefecture presides over all the 23 wards located in the center of Tokyo Prefecture as well as other cities, towns, and villages in the prefecture. Anyway, Tokyo has been the capital of Japan for 400 years.)
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Mr. Ishihara is not only the most popular politician in Japan with a strong tie with the central Government, but also a prominent author and an elder brother of the deceased, prominent actor.
He is regarded as being a more nationalist than Prime Minister Mr. Shinzo Abe whose deceased father had been a friend of Mr. Ishihara's.
Mr. Ishihara is sometimes accused, by liberal people, of expressing a sense of too much superiority to Koreans, Chinese, and even French.
On the other hand, though he has many friends in the U.S. and seems to be highly trusted by the US Government, he has sometimes candidly manifested his displeasure at Americans' arrogance.
(He once wrote that he had clearly pointed at America's racism like a man or samurai, when he had been interviewed in the U.S. by a young beautiful American female TV reporter without surrendering himself to her charm.)
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Mr. Ishihara, when he was 12-years old or so at the end of WWII, experienced an air raid by the US Navy. One of US carrier-based fighter planes, from a sky of a Pacific coast near Tokyo, swooped down and fired at him running and trying to hide in a farmland.
He survived in a whole skin, and later won a prominent literary award, when he was a university student learning French literature after WWII, which paved the way for his success in politics. He was elected as a Diet lawmaker and also became a Cabinet minister.
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On September 11, 2001, the Tokyo Governor was in Washington DC and about to move to New York.
He did not especially articulate his opinions about the War on Terror, but as a political ally of former Prime Minister Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, he seems to be not against the US military operations against terror at all.
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Only God knows if Mr. Ishihara wins the coming election for the Governor of Tokyo, taking up challenges of younger candidates.
But, unlike Mr. Bloomberg who has a brilliant record of success in information business, Mr. Ishihara with a backbone of an author has to be honest to his idea, instinct, and literary style.
He is a type of leaders very different from aggressive military-oriented ones in and before WWII.
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To understand Japan may be to understand the Governor of Tokyo who is directly elected by voters in the largest constituency for an official post in Japan.
I am not so sure about how much helpful this introduction is for you.
But, peace begins with understanding personality of others; and you should not fail in understanding a person such as the Governor of Tokyo, two of whose sons are also Diet lawmakers.
(I have no personal relation with the Governor of Tokyo. I seldom read what he writes. But, I admit that he represents one of powerful groups in our society.
Do you have such personal connections, for example, in New York? But, then, for what? To get fast financial information such as Bloomberg U.S. Internet Index?)
"HAVE THE SALT OF FRIENDSHIP"