Tokyo mayoral victory comes a ‘big surprise’ for a candidate

A Japanese woman living in Belgium has been elected mayor of Tokyo after becoming famous for her online campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Satoko Kishimoto, 47, who lived with her husband and children for 10 years in Leuven, Belgium, is now the mayor of Suginami with 500,000 people, more than 5,800 miles from her home. Kishimoto works as a project coordinator for a multinational non-profit research institute in Amsterdam, but has traveled to Japan for personal support in recent weeks.

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Kishimota’s husband, Olivier Hodeman, said the election results were “a big surprise” and that their youngest son is still in high school and has not yet decided to move to Japan. “During the COVID-19 crisis, when everything was online, Satoko Levenden was very involved in online public debates in Japan,” he told Radio Flanders.

“Satoko is very interested in politics and knows a lot about politics working at the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. He became very popular among the progressive movement in Japan and asked to become mayor of Suginami.

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“Satoko spent the first 25 years of his life in Japan. Then he moved to the Netherlands and then to Leben, where we lived together for over 10 years and now we have two children.

“The election results were a great surprise. Satoko won the mayor of the Conservative Party. His political messages were well received by many citizens. Satoko wants less privatization and more citizen participation. ”

Kishimoto, who published a book on alternative water privatization, won an overwhelming victory by 200 votes, ignoring criticism from opponents of Belgian regulation.

According to the version in question, Kishimoto will return to Japan, and the rest of the family will join him later. Hodeman: “Our youngest son is still in high school and is a few years old. Therefore, moving to Japan will not be easy. We still have to think about it. “