This is a day in the life of a Japanese Politician.
[Music]
This is Ayumi, 36 years-old living in
Tokyo and she's just waking up for work.
Oh, and that's her two-year-old son Hiro-Kun!
They live in a 3-LDK apartment
together with her husband, but he's away
during the weekdays. It's called Tanshin-Funin
in Japanese, which means married
partner living separately from the
family for work.
It's fairly common in Japan. Since he's
not around, Ayumi's mother comes by
every morning to help out.
Hiro-Kun is quite active so she helps
watch him, while Ayumi cooks and gets
ready for the day.
The first thing she does is prepare for
Hiro-kun's breakfast. She feels it's
important for her son to have a balanced
Japanese-style meal
every day, but doesn't have the time in
the morning to prepare all the dishes,
so she does a lot of the meal-prep
whenever she has free time.
Now, while Hiro-kun's slowly works on his
breakfast with grandma; Ayumi prepares a
typical Japanese Bento-box for his lunch.
Wow! That looks delicious!
Oh no, I think her son is getting fussy!
Oh! Ayumi is making a Kyaraben, it's short
for Character Bento and it's very common
in Japan
to prepare for kids, so they can have fun
during their lunch-time.
After breakfast, she helps Hiro-kun
practice reading Hiragana.
Finally! She gets time to get herself
ready.
It only takes Ayumi five minutes to
get ready, since she took a bath the
night before.
I think that's a Day In The Life series
women's record!
And for her breakfast, she's having a banana smoothie!
Nice! That's a pin given to only city-
council members.
Before work, she takes her son to nursery school.
In Tokyo,
getting your child enrolled in a nursery
school can be as competitive as getting
into university,
but, dual working parents have a slight advantage.
So, Ayumi lives fairly close to her office,
sometimes even taking her bicycle but
today,
she's decided to take the bus. The ride
itself is less than 20 minutes,
relatively-short compared to most
Jjapanese-salaryman commutes.
So Ayumi works as a Kugikaigiin,
in English a city-council member for
Minato ku in Tokyo. Confusingly, the term
'ku' in English means ward, a subdivision
of a city. Yet in Tokyo, all of the
23 wards, like
Minato-ku are classified as cities, since
they're equally-independent and governed
like a city.
Even with their own mayor! So I'm just in
front of the city hall and Ayumi should be
arriving in just a little bit.
Oh there she is!
Let's go see how she's doing.
Good morning!
What time did you sleep last night?
It's super hot today, right?
So Ayumi has been working as a city council member
for over five-years and this
is her second term. There are 34
council members in Minato city, directly
elected by citizens every four years.
City council members decide on matters
such as budgets, ordinance and deliberate
and decide on municipal policies,
all the while working closely with the
mayor. This term 13 out of 34 members are
women, one of the highest representation
of women council members
in Japan. In fact, only 10.2 percent of
Japan's diet members are women, the
lowest in the G20.
Oh, it looks like our intern is patiently
waiting at her door.
This is Ayumi's office, a very typical-style
Japanese office.
Open-island style desk-setup with
no cubicle, so that everyone can easily
communicate with one another.
Oh! Another intern has arrived.
So why did you decide to become a city council member?
As an intern for a Japanese politician,
it's important to always be available
when needed.
In this case, they stand at the edge of
the desk ready and waiting for Ayumi's
next instruction.
How old are you?
Oh you're a college student.
Which university do you go to?
What are you gonna do now?
As a council member, one of their jobs is
to discover useful services that the
the city can offer to its residents.
Today, she's meeting with a company who
provides short-term childcare services,
with the company's hopes to offer the
service to the city.
In Japan, it's crucial after the meeting
to see your clients off, and even more
important to wait until they're no longer visible,
before you leave.
Just after her meeting, she decides to go
to the city assembly-hall to practice
her speech for the next council meeting.
She usually doesn't practice, but since
they installed the plastic panel for
the Coronavirus recently, she wanted to see
how it would be like to speak.
Oh cool! That's her seat.
All council members are assigned their
own seat in the hall.
It even has their name on it!
So nobody uses the assembly hall right now?
Finally! Lunchtime!
As a Japanese Politician, her schedule is filled from
morning till evening.
So much so, that she can barely take a 30-
minute lunch.
She often takes lunch at the city hall
public cafeteria, located in the building.
Prices are quite reasonable so you'll
find even residents visiting city hall
eating here.
Tanuki Soba! Great choice!
Wow, the food here is quite reasonably- priced and
check out this view; it's pretty amazing.
And a little secret for all of you;
anyone can actually come here.
Do you three eat together every day?
In between meetings she must diligently
follow up on paperwork, as her time is limited.
Oh! She's using a Hanko,
an official Japanese stamp.
So the Hanko-stamp system is embedded
deeply in Japanese government procedures
and sign-off documents.
It's equivalent of an official signature in western
culture. Basically, any official documents
in Japan require Hanko stamp for approval.
But, just this year Japan's
state minister has been pushing to remove
many of the Hanko-stamp procedures
from government documents. But who knows?
This plan still needs to get hunkered off.
That's a staff member from the city
council office.
As a council-member, Ayumi often works with the office
to discuss council operations.
So, in addition to meeting with people
from the outside, she's also responsible
for handling internal administrative tasks.
Since the Olympics were cancelled in Tokyo,
is there a lot of things that you need
to take care of?
They constructed a fence to block out
the ocean section used for the race,
so people couldn't get in.
But, since the Olympics were canceled they had to take
it down.
Now, if the Olympics proceed next year;
the city will have to rebuild all of the
infrastructure, costing additional
taxpayer money.
So it looks like they're going to be
working for a little bit.
Let's take advantage of this time and explore the
place.
So we're on the first-floor lobby area
right now, and it looks like there's some
open-meeting tables so if you wanted to
meet someone, you can actually meet them here.
And just right in front of our office, it
looks like they have some mailboxes for
all the people on this floor.
Wow! This office is stacked with papers!
Like many businesses in Japan,
a Japanese-government office is still
very much paper-based.
In fact, Suga, Japan's new Prime Minister
as of this year, is proposing to digitize
much of Japan's government services,
even ordering the creation of a digital agency.
But again, much of this still
needs to be budgeted and passed to the
national diet for approval.
So just right here it looks like they
have all the cups and plates.
But, I'm kind of curious to see what's
behind these doors.
Let's see. Oh wow! A sink!
Who would have thunk?
Now it's time to get the party started.
As a city council member, she spends a
lot of time meeting people,
gathering information and hearing
problems from residents.
So much so, Ayumi is often out of the office.
What's there?
So Ayumi belongs to the Tokyo branch of
the Democratic Party for the people.
And today she has an appointment at the
party headquarters.
She's supposed to drop off a list of
supporters, but the truth is
she could probably do this by email.
The real reason she's here is to discuss
internal party matters that don't
necessarily get discussed during general
party meetings.
As a Japanese politician it's always important to understand
what's happening behind the scenes.
Now, she's gonna visit one of the
officials in the Sangiin,
in English, House of Councillors, which is
the Upper House of Japan's national diet.
He also belongs to the same party, just on
the national level.
She's visiting him to also hear his
thoughts on recent party matters.
She says it's critical for her to always gather
information from different sources in
order to make the best decisions.
So where are you going now?
By the way, she's wearing a bright blue
dress today, which is her campaign color.
In Japan, many politicians embrace a
theme color,
usually something bright, like a strong
red or green.
Damn! It's such an open office back there!
Very typical in Japan for
government offices to be open like this to the public.
As a mother herself, one of her goals is to improve
the lives of her community
members by making it easier to raise children.
In order for her to do that, she
regularly hosts hearing-sessions with
parents in the community.
Oh! It seems like she's giving feedback
about the support Minato city offers,
after giving birth.
Apparently, you can get support from the
the city for a home-helper and postpartum doula.
That's interesting!
Where are you going now?
Can I ask you what you love about this job?
So local residents have been voicing
concerns about how people are getting
injured at the bike gates by the bridge.
And one of the residents has volunteered
to meet with her to explain the situation,
so she can better understand it.
So one of Ayumi's biggest
responsibilities is to help solve
problems that residents are having.
So after these type of hearings, she follows
up with the city-officers to discuss how it can be improved.
Based off their feedback,
she reports to the residents to
see if the offered solution
will be sufficient.
Basically, acting as a condiment between
the people and the city officials.
So local residents can contact you directly?
Oh! She's back at home.
In Japan, it's common to see politicians
giving speeches at the station,
sometimes even on top of huge vans!
It's called Gaito Enzetsu.
It's a Japanese way to let
the community know what your policies
and goals are,
and a way for them to remember you.
It often happens in the morning
or evening, when commuter traffic is the
heaviest, and
Ayumi has keenly set up on the exiting
side of the train station this evening,
to catch the commuters
returning home.
Do you need to get permission for this?
So after work, she volunteers for the
community night-patrol.
And look, Hiro-Kun is here!
Local residents all get together to patrol the area to help
prevent crimes, by walking the
neighborhood.
So why do you do this?
Oh! Do you hear that sound. That's the
sound of a Hyoushigi,
a traditional Japanese instrument, often
used throughout the year. It's kind of
like a warning sound and most notably
used by the fire-patrol to notify
everyone that it's a dry winter and to
be careful of burning things. But to many
Japanese, it's a sound that signifies
winter is here.
Oh! They did an Icchojime!
Japanese perform this custom when they finish up an event
to celebrate that it went safely and to
thank people who participated.
Finally, she's home! And I guess her and
Hiro-Kun are having Somen noodles for dinner.
After putting Hiro-Kun into sleep, Ayumi
continues her work from the living room,
since most of her day is spent meeting
with people, she often has to do her
follow-up desk work at night, before she
goes to sleep. And she'll probably go to
sleep around
12 to 1 o'clock.
So what did you guys think of a
day in the life of a Japanese Politician?
Let me know in the comments.
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