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
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