Spare a thought for Marutei Tsurunen, Japan's first European-born naturalized immigrant parliamentarian. He was voted out in last month's House of Councilors election.
You might think I'd call it tragic. No. It was a comeuppance.
It needn't have turned out this way. Squeaking into a seat by default in 2001, Tsurunen was later re-elected in 2007 with a reaffirming mandate of 242,740 proportional representation votes, sixth in his party. Last month, however, he lost badly, coming in 12th with only 82,858.