As campaigning for Sunday's Lower House election heats up, two candidates are lucky to have a guaranteed point of interest — one comes from Finland, the other from China.
Marutei Tsurunen came to Japan from Finland as a Lutheran missionary, and Meilan left her native Shanghai for Tokyo to pursue a singing career. Both are now naturalized citizens and are aiming to win seats in the Diet.
"I have long been looking for ways to contribute to Japanese society . . . and I realized that becoming a lawmaker was the best way to do that," said Tsurunen, 60, who is running in the Kanagawa Prefecture No. 17 single-seat constituency on the Democratic Party of Japan ticket.