In America, former movie stars make good Presidents. In the East, it seems, it works the other way: it takes a politician to become a popular porn star. If you’re lucky enough, you might have seen some photos of the hottest property in Japanese politics, Yuri Fujikawa (藤川ゆり) showing off her cleavage at a beach in her hometown of Hachinohe, 八戸 (not to be confused with the real porn star, of the same name! Warning – NSFW link).

For those that are not up on their Aomori geography, Hachinohe is a smallish town in the east coast of Aomori prefecture at the tip of Honshu. It’s biggest year round tourist attraction is its rather dull fish market (Hasshoku Centre, 八食センター), usually full of local elderly folks, and US Marines from the nearby Misawa Airforce Base (presumably because there is nothing else for them to do in their time off). Anyway, I digress – the point is, that Hachinohe is an extremely quiet, down-to-earth, and above all conservative community. Throw into that mix a young (hot) representative who just released a gravure DVD and a sexy photo shoot book, and you have some fiery topics of conversation for the population of sleepy old Hachinohe (and far beyond!).

Anyway, before we go on any further, here is the first part of Yuri Fujikawa’s DVD (You can watch the full DVD at the bottom of this article!):
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/1.mp4[/flv]

I was mentally preparing to write an editorial piece complaining about the new lows that Japanese politics has stopped to, but maybe it’s not quite as bad as it appears. After all, she does have a bit in common with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Ronald Regan.

What is more important to a politician than grass roots support? As even a joshikosei (女子高生) can see with the current nejire kokkai (hung parliament, ねじれ国会) it is very clear that a political party can’t instigate real change without a firm majority. Likewise for individual candidates. Without a solid margin between you and your closest competitor, politicians are forced to parade populist policies to the electorate in order to win votes. What we really need are politicians who have the balls to announce controversial, ground breaking policies and they can’t do that if they’re constantly worried about the next election. When Fujikawa was elected to the local parliament in Hachinohe (八戸) she won double the votes of her nearest rival in the Komeito (6962 vs 3665) and drew the biggest voting turnout (56%) in the town for 12 years despite it being a rainy day. That is what I call a mandate. How is that any different to our old friends, Ronnie or Shuwa-chan (シュワちゃん, what the Japanese call Arnie)? Let’s take this and run with it for a moment (and please don’t bring any parallels with Sarah Palin and her beauty contest).

To tell you the truth, I was just starting to find Japanese politics interesting again. The big thanks go to our current charismatic PM, Taro Aso. First they portrayed him as uneducated when he misread some Kanji (hell, I do that all the time). Then they portrayed him as being insensitive as he publicly trashed both the medical community and pensioners which I might point out happen to be two key sources of votes for the LDP (yeah!).

Bet lets put aside the face value of his comments (although I must say I tend to agree with some of them) and focus on what was going on inside his brain. This is a man who is being honest with the public. Making controversial statements is a helluva lot better than consistently lying to voters with unrealistic promises around election time. Remember this is also a politician who openly admitted he was a Manga Otaku. Sure, I think that’s a little weird but who cares. He’s not hiding anything in the closet.

The kind of politician who is willing to speak out against large groups of his own supporters, is the same kind who will have the balls to announce an unpopular policy for the good of the nation (like raising the consumption tax in three years time). Aso’s problem though is that he doesn’t have enough support. He’s missing the Fujikawa mandate. Unfortunately that is going to rob us (Japan) of a politician willing to make tough decisions. In fact it has already started. The moment that Aso’s popularity fell below 40%, his mandate disappeared. The Dons of the LDP started rebuffing – one by one, each of Aso’s decent proposals – the consumption tax, tobacco tax, etc etc. Oh, and you guessed it, the only thing they let him hang on to was the evil ばらまき (baramaki, blatant handing out of cash to electorates in order to win votes) in a desperate attempt to try and win votes when the parliament is dissolved early next year. Japan can’t afford to rob the the 埋蔵金 (maizokin, the reserves previous governments had made in order to repay government debt as it reaches maturity in the future) grave. Stand up, Aso. Put on your bikini! And film a sexy DVD in the beaches of Aomori… for the people of Japan!

For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the chatter on 2-channel, Yuri Fujikawa (official homepage, official blog) is a 28 year old female member of the Hachinohe (八戸) local government. She’s officially an independent but is a member of the Liberal Democratic Club (自由民主クラブ, jiyuminshukurabu) and officially campaigned with Abe in the upper house election in 2007 so it’s fair to say has a reasonable amount of LDP in her blood. In Japan’s true “tall poppy syndrome” style, she’s been criticized as being “too pretty” to be a politician. Who cares? No-one said that about Koizumi when his good looks attracted a lot of young female voters to vote for the first time. Fujikawa alienated the local pollies who had supported her Dad when she suddenly released a gravure DVD and photo book (写真集) to promote the town. Come on! The town is filled with conservative old fogies and colloquially referred to as a bee’s fart (蜂の屁, hachinohe) – it needs a bit of publicity – Good on her!

The key point here is whether or not Fujikawa is contributing to her local electorate or not. And I don’t mean by cheering up recently risutora-ed (リストラ, fired) local salary-men with shots of her cleavage (although undoubtedly a welcome side effect). As far as I can tell, she’s using her new found popularity to raise citizens’ awareness of local issues and push through policies to turn Hachinohe into on of Japan’s most environmentally forward thinking towns. Other issues that Fujikawa is pushing include as local health care, aged care and disaster prevention. No qualms there from me. She’s also been quite outspoken on the issue of the expected negative economic impact of extending then Shinkansen past Hachinohe.

While it is a little less obvious, she seems to have taken an interest in food and recently appeared at a cooking demonstration for the local consumer group, Tampoponokai (dandelion club, たんぽぽの会). Contrary to rumor, I believe that she was wearing clothes beneath the apron at the time.

Much to the chagrin of her denouncers, even if Fujikawa wasn’t contributing to policy, she’s still probably doing her electorate a favor. After all, look at the huge impact that Sonomanma Higashi (そのまんま東) has had on Miyazaki Prefecture’s economy. All he did was effectively use his popularity to appear on nationwide TV and publicize his hometown. It’s a shame that Japan still isn’t advanced enough to appreciate a female doing the same thing.

And to me, the biggest irony is that the DVD footage isn’t even that sexy. It’s clearly been a while between innings for the old fogies in Hachinohe if they think that it is erotically provocative. I doubt that many of the Chinese newspaper reporters that have been making a big fuss (here and here) have shelled out the 4,000 yen to see it either. There are rumors going around that she appeared on a TV Asahi show before she was elected where women fight Sumo battles in the snow in their bikinis (雪上ビキニ相撲). Now that would be provocative. Here are some screen grabs of her in the snow in her bikini, but if anyone has the footage please leave us a link below in the comments section – we’d love to see it.

So, what do you think of her? Here is the full footage of her DVD. Does it turn you on? Would you pay 4000 yen for it? Would you vote for her?

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 2:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/2.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 3:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/3.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 4:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/4.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 5:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/5.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 6:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/6.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 7:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/7.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 8:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/8.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 9:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/9.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 10:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/10.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 11:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/11.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 12:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/12.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 13:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/13.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 14:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/14.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 15:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/15.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 16:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/16.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 17:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/17.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 18:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/18.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 19:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/19.mp4[/flv]

Yuri Fujikawa DVD – Part 20:
[flv]http://www.stippy.com/wp/wp-content/zuploads/z_man_up/200812-yuri_fujikawa/20.mp4[/flv]