It's election season in Japan, which means posters of candidates everywhere as well as election broadcasts on TV. Pretty soon the streets will be filled with the soundscape of the trucks trundling around, calling out the local candidates' names to all and sundry. As always, though, it's the more unusual candidates vying for a well-paid position in the House of Councillors that make the most impact in a gray field. Takashi Tachibana is standing for election as a member of the Party to Protect the People from NHK (NHKから国民を守る党) -- a long-running libertarian-esque stance that ...

Japanese politics can be a dull affair. That's why when a candidate puts himself forward for consideration by the voting public in all his naked glory, people take notice. Teruki Goto is standing in the April 26 Chiyoda ward assembly elections in central Tokyo. His campaign poster features his posing naked against a backdrop of imperialist iconography. Images via GetNews.jp His rambling website seems to place Goto firmly in the ultra-nationalist camp, though we wonder what the uyoku think about his nude antics. The thirtysomething wannabe politico has stood before as an independent ...