Whats it like to come from a big city like Tokyo to a little village in Fuchuu?
It’s much more natural for me here. I grew up near Yame City, a town in Fukuoka prefecture with a population of about 35,000, in an extremely rural village far away from anywhere else much more rural than here till I was 18. Not even in the village itself, but 30 minutes drive from the village center. I’ve only been in Tokyo for the last 15 years. It’s very natural for me, not something I really notice. So I understand what it’s like for people both in the cities and in the villages. Q. Locals around here have commented that Horie has “nothing to do with Hiroshima”. Your opponent, LDP candidate Shizuka Kamei, says you’re just “a curiosity for people to gawk at.” What’s your take? A: Everyone thinks that you have to run where you grew up. But there’s no such law. The law is, as long as you’re a Japanese citizen 25 or over, you can run for the lower house [of the Japanese Diet] anywhere. Given that law, to criticize me for having nothing to do with Hiroshima is a little too excessive. Th
