Readers with long memories may recall the story we published in 2015 about Rie Saito, the beautiful hostess who happened to be deaf from childhood. At the time, Saito was a single mom, Ginza hostess, and author of a bestselling memoir that was turned into a TV drama in 2010. She was also an aspiring politician. She successfully ran in an election for Tokyo's Kita Ward Assembly in 2015, serving her full four-year term. She had national ambitions and was subsequently selected as a proportional representation candidate for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan in the House of ...

It's election season, which always brings out the weirdos all competing to be the next governor of Tokyo. On the same day, there are also by-elections in two of Tokyo's special wards and two other districts to select Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly representatives to make up for assembly members who are standing down for some reason. So far we have seen one candidate dressed in anime cosplay to promote his campaign. The same candidate, Teruki Goto, once had a poster that featured his half-naked body. The much-maligned Abenomasks -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's personally launched initiative that ...

The Japan Times published a recent article about the fascinating -- and inspiring -- tale of Rie Saito. Saito, who lost her hearing at age 1, plans to run in the April 26 election in Tokyo’s Kita Ward Assembly as a Nippon wo Genki ni Suru Kai (Party to Revitalize Japan) candidate. A best-selling author who was once the No. 1 hostess at a club in Tokyo’s Ginza district, Saito was known as the hitsudan hostess who used writing to communicate with her customers. So this hottie would use paper to keep her patrons happy in Ginza and encourage them to buy her drinks. Being a hostess is all ...