it's election time!

earlier today, i voted in today's gubernatorial election. just a few interesting reflections:

1. in order to vote, all eligible residents are mailed a registration form.
2. the registration form needs to be taken to the polling place.
3. upon presenting the registration form, you are given a small piece of paper with an empty box.
4. in the box, you write the name of the candidate you wish to vote for.
5. you put your ballot in the box.

and that was it. there weren't any local measures or anything like that. there weren't any bubbles or computer programs. the whole thing seems so simple...i don't remember voting like that since elementary school student council elections. even my junior high school and high school used scantrons i think.

although it has already been announced that shintaro ishihara (wikipedia) has been reelected for his third term, there was no way that i could vote for such a xenophobe. my vote went to shiro asano (wikipedia), who represented the primary opposition against independent ishihara, who leans very far to the right. but just from watching news reports about who tokyoites voted for, it's really shocking to hear public sentiment.

being the biggest city in the world (in terms of population), many residents believe that having such an outspoken leader is necessary to maintain order in an already relatively strict society. and seeing that minority groups represent such a small percentage of tokyo (as well as the fact that unlike myself, almost none of them are eligible to vote), their rights must be hedged to ensure the well-being of the dominant japanese population.

coming from liberal san francisco, conservative tokyo is definitely a new experience. but as long as people are still being marginalized and justice is not a reality, then there still is lots of work to do. 35 million people to work on...they don't call this a struggle for nothing.