Japan Parliament Upper House Elections

Japan's Parliaments Upper House elections took place just this weekend. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's (or Abe-chan as I like to call him) Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) experienced a crushing defeat as newspapers and tv-channels have been reporting worldwide.

Abe's party still has the upper hand in the Lower House (Upper Hand in Lower House...). Especially since as far as I know the Upper House doesn't command so much power in the parliament, similar with the case in UK. However Abe-chan certainly isn't doing well, and the Japanese people have proven that with their votes. Abe-chan has refused to resign from his post as he "wants to keep his promises to the Japanese people" It will be left to be seen though if Abe-chan will be forced out of his office.

Anyways that is just to tell you that there were elections in Japan, the real thing starts here.

So I was looking trough the extremely interesting voting results. It's basically a list of the people, with their names and pictures and amount of votes they received.

I was excitingly going trough this list full of typical looking dull Japanese politicians faces, when something catches my attention...

I get a feeling there is something unusual in here...

Hmm, what could it be....

Kind of like a Japanese, but still somehow unusual.....
The red rose means he got in the Upper House
His name is written in Katakana and it sounds strangely Familiar.
TSU-RU-NE-N MA-RU-TE-I
Birthplace....FINLAND

そうそう、皆さん、このメガネのおっさんは、Ｍａｒｔｔｉ　Ｔｕｒｕｎｅｎ　フィンランド出身の日本の議員。
なんてすばらしいでございます！
実はＭａｒｔｔｉ　Ｔｕｒｕｎｅｎさんは日本初めての外国人の議員ですよ。（彼の前に韓国人は議員になったことがありましたが、その方は日本人として国会に入りました）。

よ～～くみてください！
まるでArnold Schwarzenegger みたいでございませんか？

Yes, he is Martti Turunen! The first foreigner even to sit in Japans parliament, he is finnish and reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger, not due to his looks, but due to his achievements. Now is not the first time he got in Japan's parliament. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan that got the upper hand in the Upper House in this election.

CONGRATULATIONS & GOOD LUCK MASA!

homepage(japanese)

wikipedia english

wikipedia finnish

wikipedia japanese

and while we're talking about elections I'd like to remind Japanese readers to take extra care when talking about ELECTIONS in English. I wonder how many conversations around the world took an interesting turn lately when a Japanese gentleman or lady took up the topic of JAPANESE ERECTIONS, in the dinner table.

Hiro: "So John, have you heard about the erections in Japan"
John: "Umm, erections...? I think I haven't"
Hiro: "At the moment everyone in Japan is talking about the erections, how are the erections in your country?"
John: "..."

(well, it's not so funny, but it's been prove to happen...)

もし、英語で選挙について話すことになったら、気を付くてください。