Convicted seditionist loses bid for Tokyo governorship, creates YouTube stir
The Tokyo gubernatorial election results are in, and it is no big surprise that incumbent Ishihara was re-elected in a landslide. But the online buzz surrounding “fringe” candidate Kouichi Toyama’s unsuccessful campaign has yet to dissipate.
The street musician, who recently served two years in prison for sedition, made a controversial campaign speech that was televised nationwide on NHK prior to the election. Copies were then posted to video sharing sites like YouTube, where they became popular.
The Tokyo election management committee contacted YouTube several days before the election, demanding the videos be removed to “ensure fairness in the election process.” But the committee’s demands apparently went unheeded, as countless versions of the video remain on the site.
Here’s the video (with English subtitles by Anime World):
(Check here for other Toyama videos on YouTube, including parodies, cutups, and remixes w/ soundtracks.)
While Toyama only tallied about 15,000 votes out of the roughly 5.5 million votes cast citywide, he and a few hundred supporters still saw reason to gather at Koenji station for an election night celebration. Toyama arrived at the festivities on his scooter carrying a television, which he and his supporters later watched for coverage of the election results.
Other notable eccentrics in the gubernatorial race included Dr. Nakamats (the wacky, prolific inventor whose list of 3,000 creations includes the floppy disk), Kisho Kurokawa (the well-known Metabolist architect), Kinzo Sakura (a comedian) and Kumiko Uchikawa (a feng shui expert).
[Via: Iza!]
wow is this some kind of joke?
that person needs to see a doctor for counseling!
Pure Subgenius! Viva Toyama!
yes, absolutely hilarious! Mad genius!
Wow. That was amazing. A nice change of pace, at least, from the tepid, content-lite political drivel we usually have to listen to.
Thanks once again for delivering such unfailingly interesting and off-beat content!
The fact that 15,000 people would actually vote for him is pretty scary.
[…] Aside from causing a major stir in Japan and across the world wide web, the video sparked a serious debate on the Internet and in the Japanese blogosphere about freedom of speech and the limits of election campaign laws. While the political speech was not the first of its kind — in 1991, rock-and-roll singer and actor Uchida Yuuya told his rock and roll story in his gubernatorial campaign speech, and in 2004 Matayoshi Jesus ran for office as “the only God” — it was generally acknowledged to have been the most well-choreographed and skilfully executed. […]
[…] M.I.A. played this video as the intro to her Columbus performance. I guess the video is of radical Kouichi Toyama who ran for a Japanese Governor position under the platform of overthrowing and completely […]