First Indian man to win the election in Japan: Puranik Yogendra
Puranik Yogendra is known by the nickname ‘Yogi’ is 41 years old Indian-origin Japanese who has been elected in the Tokyo’s Edogawa Ward assembly. He is the first Indian to win the election in Japan.
According to Asahi Shimbun’s report, Puranik Yogendra is a naturalized Japanese who secured 6,477 votes among 2,26,561 valid ballots cast on April 21 poll, part of combined local elections apprehended across Japan. Yogi who is backed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan said that he wants to bridge between Japanese and foreigners.
Edogawa Ward has the largest number of Indian residents among Tokyo’s 23 wards with almost 4,300 Indian nationalists registered. Almost 10 percent of the Indians live in Japan i.e., almost 34,000 lives there. The Edogawa Ward has a large number of Chinese and Koreans.
Shamshad Khan who is the author of Changing Dynamics of Indian-Japan Relations said to PTI that this is first ever victory of a naturalized Japanese of the Indian origin in elections in Japan. This is the recognition of the contribution that is made by Indians towards Japanese society.
Yogi was a University student in India in 1997 when he first came to Japan. He has returned two years later to study and in 2001 came back to work as an engineer. The paper said that he, later on, worked for a bank and otherwise companies and resided in Edogawa Ward.
Recalling early experiences Yogi said that Japan is neat and everyone is kind. The paper said that Yogi has felt his ties with Japan strength after the 2011 earthquakes and tsunami disaster while he was visiting the affected areas on weekends to cook curry with his friends and share with the victims. During this period of time, he felt a strong affinity with this country. In this phase, he felt that it was time for him to become Japanese.
In the following year, he acquired Japanese nationality and pursued his career in politics. He said that he wanted to be an assemblyman who wants to connect with everyone despite nationality, age, or disabilities.
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