Today I had a pretty awesome VIP in the house: Seiko Noda.

Seiko Noda is a member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) (which is actually conservative, not liberal, but whatever) and represents Gifu Prefecture 1st District in parliament. Her career spans 16 years and includes opening a session of parliament eight or so years ago (a privilege usually reserved for the Upper Echelons of the party; she was the first woman to do this), and being the Minister[ess] of Posts and Telecoms under former Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi (this post was cut short due to Obuchi's sudden death of a stroke in 2000). Later, she was the most vocal opponent to the privatization of the post office that PM Junichiro Koizumi was feverishly pushing, and ended up getting essentially screwed by his administration because of it. And so on, and so forth.

My mother-in-law is a long-time party member and volunteer during her campaigns, which is why something like this was happening. This isn't the first time she's been in the house -- she came once for about half an hour back when the house was first built for a similar event -- but this time we got to actually discuss things, namely the LDP's position regarding Japan's role in the War on Terror™, Inc.

Now, I seem to be slipping into Reporter Mode or something -- and at the time it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to have a famous national political figure in my house -- but right now, as I type this, I'm thinking: HOLY SHIT DUDES I HAD A FAMOUS NATIONAL POLITICAL FIGURE IN MY HOUSE.

Luckily for you fine LiveJournal readers I happen to have one-a them camera thingies. (Click all for larger, as if you needed to be told by now.)

Although Rep. Noda was only at the house for 90 minutes, preparing for the luncheon and picking up after it was a day-long affair. At the ass-crack of dawn there were jabbering ladies in the house preparing vast piles of food to lay out on the tables we borrowed from the community center the day before. M and I were the only people in the house under the age of 60 (this figure would only increase upon the arrival of Seiko herself, and her entourage). We'd never had this many people in the house at once. The cat made himself scarce during the whole thing.

Then at 12:00 on the tick, one of Seiko's assistants (a strapping young shaggy-haired dude who looked like he just stepped out of an idol magazine) showed up and scouted out the place for a few minutes... and then a big black government-looking car slid up to the driveway.

And out she came.



Saying hello to everyone gathered at the front door, she caught sight of me and promptly said "Hey, long time no see! You've put on a bit of weight, no?" I answered that I hoped she wasn't about to introduce legislation outlawing fat guys, but by that time she was already heading inside with her internal politician Charm Unit turned up to eleventy-one.

We all spent an hour in there pigging out and talking about such things as the recent election drubbing; a fellow representative who puts on a genial air in front of the cameras, but is a real cranky Cheney-like bastard the rest of the time (don't tell anyone!); how good the food was; etc.







After the food had been pigged thoroughly she got on with the Political Spiel part of the visit, passing out flyers explaining the LDP's position regarding whether or not to continue the JSDF's mission in the Indian Ocean, refueling coalition ships headed to and from the Persian Gulf. The Democrats (yes, Japan has them too) are vehemently opposed to anything even resembling helping the US continue their disastrous war in Iraq, which among other things is unconstitutional as per Article 9 (which states that Japan must never even have a military to begin with, much less assist someone else's).

The LDP's position, Rep. Noda explained, is: look, 24 Japanese died in the 9/11 attacks, so this isn't just "America's" conflict; and besides, Japan is doing the least of any member of this coalition, being little more at this point than a glorified gas station for warships. The DPJ frequently refers to polls that say the vast majority of Japanese oppose the Iraq war; this may be true, but most citizens otherwise approve of what little is currently being done, because a) there are no more Japanese troops in Iraq itself, and b) you're not likely to get riddled with al-Qaeda bullets on board a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

After this discussion (as well as some other stuff about the state of the LDP in general), she announced that she only had five or so minutes left and would take a few questions.

So, not one to miss an opportunity like this, I took that cue and launched into the real reason I made sure I was sitting right across from her: bitching about the new immigration policy.

"This is a good time to mention this," I began, "because I don't really think this new policy [fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners entering the country] is going to do too much to fight terrorism, especially when it's so overzealous."

"Overzealous?"

"Yes, because they are doing this to all foreigners, even permanent residents like myself."

She was totally taken aback by this.

"You're kidding, really?"

"Um... yeah, the only people exempt are ethnic Koreans. I've lived here for 15 years, I've paid taxes and pension fees, I've done my bit to contribute to the economy as a worker and a resident, and I applied for and was granted the right to live here permanently, yet I'm forced to pose for a mug shot and get fingerprinted each and every time I come back from a business trip? I already have to buy a 3000-yen re-entry permit as it is..."

She seriously had no idea. I mean, she likely didn't know all the details, because she wasn't involved in the drafting of that bill or its debate in parliament. But it was a bit surprising to me nonetheless.

She (and her assistant as well) assured me that she'll take a closer look at that. I'm not holding my breath, of course, but it sort of felt good to have a member of The Government right in front of me, hearing a grievance, for a few minutes.

Alas, time was up. Rep. Noda had other things on the schedule for that day. After thanking everyone to a round of applause (hahaha, man, what am I applauding for? I can't friggin' vote) she headed outside to the big black scary G-car driven by a man with a spook earphone and a blank expression.

She bade everyone goodbye, and off she went.



Cleaning up the mess made by 15 people took the rest of the afternoon.