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- The Mainichi
Actor LaSalle Ishii helps save SDP in Japan election, vows to fight for peace and equality
TOKYO -- Facing the threat of losing its official party status in the July 20 House of Councillors election, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was rescued from the brink by actor LaSalle Ishii, 69, who ran in the proportional representation race and won his first seat.
The SDP barely cleared the 2% vote threshold required for party status, at 2.06%. Of the more than 1.21 million votes the party received in the proportional race, over 200,000 were cast for Ishii personally. As a new upper house lawmaker, he says he wants to tackle issues such as the U.S. military base problem in Okinawa and making scholarships -- which in Japan are often akin to low-intertest loans -- truly free.
"I decided to stop giving up. I decided to stop just watching in silence. I decided to make politics my work."
Ishii declared this in a hoarse voice at a street rally in Tokyo's Ueno area on July 13, standing alongside SDP leader Mizuho Fukushima. During the campaign, he traveled from Kagoshima in Japan's southwest to Hokkaido in the north, giving speeches across the country.
Ishii rose to fame in the 1980s as a member of the comedy group Konto Akashingo with Masayuki Watanabe and others, during the "manzai" comedy boom. He is also well known as the voice of Kankichi Ryotsu, the main character in the anime adaptation of the popular manga "Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo" ("Kochikame").
Since 2020, Ishii has written a column for the evening tabloid Nikkan Gendai called "Tofunseisho" (which ended in June), where he discussed issues such as inequality and poverty and criticized the government. As his political statements became more prominent, he faced a backlash, including being told "celebrities shouldn't talk politics" and seeing a noticeable drop in his TV bookings.
Ishii says the SDP had been approaching him about running for office for about a decade, but he had hesitated due to his acting career. This time, with the party's status at stake before the election, he felt strongly that "the SDP, which stubbornly stands for peace and against poverty, must survive," and decided to run.
Under the Public Offices Election Act, a party must have at least five Diet members or win at least 2% of the vote in the most recent national election to maintain official status. Without party status, the SDP would lose privileges such as running dual candidates in single-member and proportional districts and broadcasting campaign messages in single-member districts.
With only three Diet members, the SDP set a 2% vote share as its goal. At a street rally, Ishii explained to voters why he decided to run, saying, "I thought it would be interesting to take on the job of protecting the SDP's party status."
A 'centrist' at heart
Ishii says his commitment to peace is strong.
He was influenced by the works of legendary manga artist Osamu Tezuka, which he loved as a child. "Some people dismiss Tezuka's manga as fake humanism, but I learned the importance of people loving and coexisting with each other," Ishii said. On social media, he is sometimes derided as a "payoku" (a derogatory term for liberals), but he says, "I'm from the anti-establishment folk generation. Of course, I speak out for peace, and I consider myself a centrist."
He also sympathized with the political stances of the Japanese Communist Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi, but says the SDP was the first to approach him, and the personality of party leader Fukushima was decisive. "She doesn't just go along with the crowd, and in a good way. I was drawn to her unwavering stance on peace."
'No such thing as first or second among human beings'
During the campaign, there was a surge in rhetoric calling for stricter regulations on and discriminatory remarks about foreigners, such as that they are being given unfair favorable treatment.
In Sapporo, a woman of Korean descent in her 20s told Ishii, "We're so used to discrimination that it doesn't even faze us anymore." Ishii said he was shocked and saddened, adding, "There's no way this kind of society is acceptable." He warned that when society feels stifling, people are drawn to things that shine with energy, and he is wary of rising xenophobia.
He also directly challenged the surging right-wing populist party Sanseito. "What does 'Japanese First' even mean? There's no such thing as first or second among human beings," he said, referring to Sanseito's election slogan.
Looking ahead to his first day in the Diet on Aug. 1, Ishii told the Mainichi Shimbun that the SDP's role is to block constitutional revision. "I don't think the SDP's message is reaching a huge number of people, but even if it's not flashy, I want to steadily talk about the ideals of peace. Important ideals are neither old nor new," he said.
(Japanese original by Tohru Shirakawa, Tokyo Bureau)
