[Image: Akira via ascronicasdocascavel

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Former Japanese Defense Ministry Yuriko Koike is currently running for Tokyo governor. Among her ideas to is to leverage anime. Because anime is real.




While in Tokyo’s geek district Akihabara, Koike talked about how last Halloween she dressed as Sally from Sally the Witch, an early magical girl anime. Kioke added that she wants the anime industry to grow and talked about supporting Comic Market, a twice-a-year event in Tokyo.


Anime is big business in Japan, so this isn’t an unusual thing for a politician to say. It’s an industry which might need more political support. If Koike is serious about this (and online in Japan, people seem skeptical), hopefully she’ll have a plan to address the anime industry’s working conditions.

This could be further reaching than areas like Akihabara or Ikebukuro. Daily Sports quotes Koike, who served as the country’s Minister of Defense in 2007, as actually saying she wants to turn “all of Tokyo” into “anime land” (アニメランド or animerando).