A “fake councilor” in joker make-up wins the top position in the city council election! He revealed to this magazine how serious he is about his “dream of entering national politics.

New Ambitions of the “Joker Councilor

The “fake” councilor has turned into a surprisingly different councilor.

On January 26, a city council election was held in Toda City, Saitama Prefecture, and Yusuke Kawai, 43, known as the “Joker Councilor,” came out on top. He was not just the top-ranking councilor, but he received 4,419 votes, the most in the history of Toda City Council elections. Considering that the top vote-getters in past Toda City Council elections have been in the 2000-3000 range, this result shows the high expectations the city residents have for Mr. Kawai.

Kawai first entered politics in March 2009, when he was elected governor of Chiba Prefecture. Wearing flamboyant makeup reminiscent of the Joker, the villain in the movie “Batman,” he blurted out the outlandish policy of “turning Chiba Prefecture into Disneyland,” and was picked up as the “Joker of Japan” not only by the Japanese press, but also by the New York Post.

Later, in October 2010, he was elected as a member of the Soka City Council, and was given the position of councilor, but he abandoned that post and ran for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July 2012. He ran for the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July 2012, wearing a bright yellow suit and hat with his face painted green, and touting policies such as “introducing polygamy” and “rebuilding the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building into a love hotel. He also put up a campaign poster that showed him almost completely naked and received a warning from the police to remove it.

On the day of the Toda City Council election, Kawai gave an interview to Friday Digital. He explained the reason for his decision to go into the election without his trademark joker makeup. (All statements in parentheses below are from Kawai.)

A politician has to stand out and be well known. Even if a politician is serious about his policies, there is no way he can be elected if he is unknown and has no backing. So I decided that it would be better to make everything from policies to entertainment, and that’s why I started Joker. Although I was not a big hit in the Tokyo gubernatorial election, I was recognized by many people who said, “What’s this guy?

I felt that my name recognition had increased, so I decided to start my own serious political activities. I decided to appeal for the foreigner issue, which was the policy I wanted to pursue most.

Kawai specifically put forward such policies as “opposing the policy of expanding immigration,” “deporting all illegal immigrants,” “abolishing the foreigner training and employment system that increases illegal immigration,” “abolishing welfare payments to foreigners,” “banning foreigners from acquiring land in Japan,” and “opposing the right to vote for foreigners.

His activities were truly muddled.