Who Do You, Tell Me, Who Do Love?

When one is talking about the candidates on the proportional list for the 2013 edition of the reconstituted umbrella Liberal Democratic Party, the one you love will be the candidate representing your industry or profession or an archetypal super-patriot.

Rank of the LDP proportional seat winners in the election of 21 July 2013, with their former job descriptions and annotations:

1) Tsuge Yoshifumi
Chairman of the national association of private postmasters

2) Yamada Toshio
Executive director of the national association of agricultural cooperatives

3) Sato Masahisa
Colonel in the Ground Self Defense Forces
(Sato was one of the three Diet members turned away from Gimpo Airport by South Korean authorities in August 2011)

4) Ishii Midori
Board director of the Japan Dental Association

5) Hashimoto Seiko
Olympic speed skater and bicycle racer

6) Hanyuda Takashi
Vice chairman of the Japan Medical Association

7) Sato Nobuaki
Former director for roads in the Ministry of Construction

8) Akaike Masaaki
Former dean of the Japan Aviation Professional Training College
(Akaike was a speaker at The Other Sovereignty Day Commemoration of 28 April 2013)

9) Santo Akiko
Actress
(Santo served as the go-between for Ishihara Shintaro and the private owner of the three Senkaku islands during the period Ishihara was trying to purchase the islands)

10) Eto Sei'ichiro
Member of the Oita City Assembly

11) Ishida Masahiro
Secretary-general of the Japan Nursing Federation

12) Arimura Haruko
McDonalds Japan headquarters employee and part-time Ph.D. student of Aoyama Gakuin

13) Miyamoto Shuji
Chairman of the Youth Division of the Central Federation of Societies of Commerce and Industry and sake brewery CEO

14) Maruyama Kazuya
Lawyer, television personality and author

15) Kitamura Tsuneo
Reporter for the Sankei Shimbun

16) Watanabe Miki
Founder and CEO of the restaurant management corporation Watami

17) Kimura Yoshio
Senior executive of Sumitomo Bank

18) Ota Fusae
Governor of Osaka Prefecture

Those who argue that Japan is insufficiently democratic are clearly mistaken. All the industries and professions get a Senator to call their own.


Based upon an original observation that Dr. Ehud Harari posted to the SSJ-Forum.