{"id":4812,"date":"2013-07-21T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T18:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=4812"},"modified":"2013-07-21T14:55:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T18:55:06","slug":"anti-nuke-activist-taro-yamomato-wins-japanese-diet-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/07\/anti-nuke-activist-taro-yamomato-wins-japanese-diet-seat.html","title":{"rendered":"Anti-nuke activist Taro Yamomato wins Japanese Diet seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\r\nAn actor turned anti-nuke activist after Fukushima just won\r\na seat in Japan&#8217;s upper house in the national government.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.livedoor.jp\/amenohimoharenohimo\/archives\/65862454.html\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;width:350px\" src=\"http:\/\/livedoor.blogimg.jp\/amenohimoharenohimo\/imgs\/a\/2\/a27004a5-s.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nJapan Times, 22 July 2013 (Tokyo time is 13 hours ahead of Georgia time),\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2013\/07\/22\/national\/actor-yamamoto-ex-wrestler-inoki-win\/#.Uewj-sWm1-w\">\r\nActor Yamamoto, ex-wrestler Inoki win<\/a>,\r\n<\/p>\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nActor and anti-nuclear activist Taro Yamamoto and ex-wrestling star\r\nAntonio Inoki both won seats in Sunday&#8217;s Upper House contest, early\r\nreturns showed.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nYamamoto, 38, who ran as an independent in the Tokyo constituency,\r\nappeared set to enter the upper chamber after failing to win a seat\r\nin the Lower House election in December.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nHe became widely known for his anti-nuclear power activities\r\nfollowing the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns. He has also campaigned\r\nagainst Japan&#8217;s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade\r\nliberalization negotiations, while calling for improved social\r\nsecurity.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nBlogger\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424127887323829104578619400640262848.html\">\r\nIn the Eyes of an \u00c9tranger<\/a>\r\nreports Toro Yamamoto said about his election win:\r\n<blockquote>\r\n&#8220;I will do a <em>banzai<\/em> to celebrate the occasion when I really\r\nend up helping the victims of the nuclear disaster. A thorny path lies\r\nahead of me. Vested nuclear interests will no doubt try to sabotage\r\nmy efforts. My only friend in my endeavor are the voters who entrusted\r\ntheir sacred votes.&#8221;\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nWSJ notes\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424127887323829104578619400640262848.html\">\r\nfive seats for Tokyo were contested<\/a><!--more-->\r\nfor the\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/House_of_Councillors\">\r\nHouse of Councillors<\/a>\r\nand Yamamoto won one of them.\r\n(The vote was by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Single_non-transferable_vote\">\r\nsingle non-transferable voting<\/a>,\r\nin which &#8220;each voter casts one vote for one candidate in a multi-candidate race for multiple offices. Posts are filled by the candidates with the most votes.&#8221;\r\nSince five seats for Tokyo were up for election, and Yamamoto came in\r\nthird or fourth depending on how the final count comes out,\r\nhe won a seat.)\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e7w3y97FrzA\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/e7w3y97FrzA\/mqdefault.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nHe won more than 630,000 votes, way up from his 70,000 last year.\r\nHere he is\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e7w3y97FrzA\">\r\ncampaigning<\/a>; he said he had no money and 1,000 volunteers\r\ntook time off from work to put up posters and they even did it earlier\r\nthan any other party.\r\nHe also criticizes the currently proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)\r\nas being for corporate profits at the expense of people,\r\nincluding exposure to radiation through continued use of nuclear power,\r\nwhile taxpayer money intended to help people after Fukushima has\r\npartly been siphoned away for unrelated uses:\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e7w3y97FrzA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<p>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tnpkBgQgtzY\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/tnpkBgQgtzY\/mqdefault.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nHe also promised to report back on travesty in parliament.\r\nHere is\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tnpkBgQgtzY\">\r\nTaro Yamamoto explaining his anti-nuclear activism<\/a>,\r\nwhy he chose to break the taboo against political activism by actors,\r\nthe wide range of people he&#8217;s found in the truly grass-roots opposition\r\nto nuclear power,\r\nand what he&#8217;s been doing:\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center\">\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tnpkBgQgtzY\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<p>\r\nThe Japanese Upper House has 247 members, more than the U.S. Senate,\r\nand the roles of the two bodies are somewhat different.\r\nBut Taro Yamamoto being elected to the House of Councillors is like\r\nMartin Sheen being elected to the U.S. Senate.\r\nIndeed, why not have people who care about clean energy and the safety\r\nof the people more than corporate profits step forward\r\nand win the support of the people and seats in government?\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An actor turned anti-nuke activist after Fukushima just won a seat in Japan&#8217;s upper house in the national government. Japan Times, 22 July 2013 (Tokyo time is 13 hours ahead of Georgia time), Actor Yamamoto, ex-wrestler Inoki win, Actor and anti-nuclear activist Taro Yamamoto and ex-wrestling star Antonio Inoki both won seats in Sunday&#8217;s Upper [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[49,104,22,73,3],"tags":[6691,8721,8701,6692,427,8702,12,7,8737,8712,8731,6690,2138,8700,6],"class_list":["post-4812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections","category-nuclear","category-politics","category-safety","category-transparency","tag-diet","tag-elections","tag-georgia","tag-house-of-councillors","tag-japan","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-politics","tag-safety","tag-taro-yamamoto","tag-tokyo","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1fC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4812"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4819,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4812\/revisions\/4819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}