94 year old Man Becomes Japan’s Oldest Election Candidate

 Some seem to take the phrase “you’re never too old” to the extreme. A 94 year old man just filed his candidacy, three hours before the deadline, to represent the 12th district of Saitama Prefecture, becoming the oldest of 1,504 candidates in Japan’s general elections this month.

 Ryokichi Kawashima, born in 1918 at the close of World War I, had 3 million yen ($36,000 U.S.) for his election funds, an amount he saved up from his pension for his funeral expenses. But instead of dwelling on the end of his life, he instead decided the time was ripe for him to do something. After watching a TV debate among major political parties, he thought that they were all fragmented, disorganized, and had no grasp on reality. And Kawashima represents one of Japan’s biggest reality: a rapidly aging population. People aged 65 and older make up almost one-fourth of Japan’s population, stretching its annual security bill to 100 trillion yen ($13 billion U.S.).

But Kawashima isn’t campaigning about the budget. Instead, he is focused on anti-nuclear and anti-nationalist agendas. He believes that talks about China’s growing militaristic and aggressive stance is just fear-mongering. He fought for seven years in the Sino-Japanese war and stayed in China working with trade companies after World War II. He said that the Chinese have helped him get through those post-war years. China’s leaders maybe all talk about war and invasion, but he believes that the Chinese people will never do such a thing. The widower’s younger siblings and his 62 year old daughter and her family are working as Kawashima’s campaign team.