Mac Akasaka (マック赤坂) is no regular Japanese political candidate. He’s standing in the general election on 30 August for his own 日本スマイル党 (Japan Smile Party), with the intention of making us all a little bit happier. I found him at Shibuya Crossing this evening, poking out of the sunroof of his white Rolls Royce, shaking castanets at the crowd. And yes, he posed for my photo when I held my mobile phone camera up. Enough to bring a smile.
Mac Akasaka seems to have sprung from the 日本スマイルセラピー協会 (Japan Smile Therapy Association), which hopes to change society by making us all smile.
He looks a bit frightening when he wears lycra in public (see his blog), and I’ve seen him several times hanging out the sunroof driving up Sotobori-dori in Shimbashi, near my company’s office, at about 8:30am on weekdays. Each time he’s been hanging out the sunroof of his white Roller looking crazily happy. Seems that everyone walking up the footpath has a laugh at him, so maybe he’s achieving what he wants.
He seems to have inhabited Shibuya for quite a while, but whether people smile enough to take him seriously in the upcoming election remains to be seen.
Update: I’ve found some disturbing new photos of Mac Akasaka in lycra courtesy of Neil Duckett.
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