Yogendra Puranik, nicknamed Yogi by his voters, went to Japan for the first time in 1997, as a student still enrolled in an Indian university. On Tuesday, he became assemblyman Yogendra Puranik, the first naturalised Japanese of Indian origin to be elected in Japan’s ward assembly elections from Tokyos Edogawa ward.
So what happened?
His victory does make sense if you consider Edogawa Ward has the highest number of Indian residents among Tokyos 23 wards with some 4,300 registered Indian nationals. According to CNN-News18, this accounts for more than 10% of the 34,000+ Indians currently residing in Japan.
The April 21 poll was part of unified local elections held across Japan, local newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported. Having secured 6,477 votes, the fifth highest of the 226,561 valid ballots cast, Yogendra announced, “I want to be a bridge between Japanese and foreigners.”
I want to be an assemblyman who can connect everyone regardless of nationality, age, or even disabilities, through my 20 years of living in Japan, he is reported as saying by the Japanese media outlet.
What we know about the assemblyman
Yogendra is said to have become involved in Japanese communities and public service after the tsunami and earthquake in 2011. The 41-year-old had migrated from Pune for work in 2001. He was employed as an engineer first but then he went on to work at a bank and other firms while residing in Edogawa since 2005.
But after the natural disaster robbed thousands of their homes, livelihood and lives, Yogendra visited affected areas to help in the rehabilitation efforts; he cooked for victims with other Indian friends, which strengthened his ties with Japan.
Soon after, he obtained Japanese citizenship and came to enter politics; he was fielded by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in the recent polls.
Why this matters
It means a great deal for a homogenous and insular nation like Japan to admit an assemblyman of a different ethnicity into its political arena. But as Shamshad Khan, the author of Changing Dynamics of India-Japan Relations, told PTI, this is a recognition of contributions made by Indians towards the Japanese society.
This relationship is rooted in a shared cultural ethos of mutual respect, pluralism, and long-term strategic synergies. Even during challenging times, Japan has enjoyed the support of the Indian community on the global stage. Japan is extremely reverent of Justice Radhabinod Pal, who famously ruled with an unprecedented dissenting opinion in favour of Japan at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal after the Second World War.
Since the new millennium, relations between the two Asian nations are believed to be the fastest-growing ones in the continent. Several key agreements aimed at mutual development of tech sector and trade have led to this. It is also worth noting that the Quadrilateral dialogue was revived with the US and Australia last year to strengthen strategic partnership in the Asia-Pacific region.
That said, Japan has also been compelled to relax its immigration and citizenship laws, on account of its “super-aging” society both in rural and urban areas. This means Japan has the highest proportion of elderly citizens, nearly 28%, thus outweighing all other nations. This consequently increases the ratio of old retirees to young active people, but by simplifying visa applications and permanent residency criteria for foreign workers, Japan has been able to address labour shortages in a number of sectors. Without this, Yogendra would not be where he is now.
Even if Yogendra didn’t win, his candidacy would be historic in itself because this is the first time a person of Indian-origin was allowed to contest in a Japanese election. The ward he contested from houses a large number of Korean and Chinese people, so it is also quite fascinating that all these communities accepted Yogendra as their assemblyman.
With his successful election now, there is hope that he will bolster cultural and economic ties as well as the prolific tech startup ecosystem in both nations.
Prarthana Mitra is a Staff Writer at Qrius