Satoko Kishimoto gained recognition principally by means of a social media marketing campaign throughout the COVID-19 outbreak

A 47-year-old girl who has lived in Belgium for nearly a decade has been elected mayor of a Tokyo district greater than 9,000 kilometres away, after rising to recognition principally by means of a social media marketing campaign throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, Independent reported.

Satoko Kishimoto has been residing in Belgium’s Leuven metropolis together with her husband and two kids. She is now set to turn into the mayor of Tokyo’s Suginami district after profitable polls with a slender margin of simply 200 votes.

In an interview with a neighborhood Flemish radio station on Monday, her husband, Olivier Hoedeman mentioned, “During the Covid-19 crisis, when everything happened online, Satoko participated a lot in online public debates in Japan from Leuven.”

“Satoko is very interested in politics and through her work for the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam, she knows a lot about it too,” he added.

“She became very popular with the progressive movement in Japan and was asked to run for mayor in Suginami.”

Mr Hoedeman additionally knowledgeable that his spouse had lived in Japan for the primary 25 years of her life after which moved to the Netherlands and subsequently to Leuven the place she lives now.

“But Satoko has always kept the connection with Japan, so when the invitation came to run for mayor, she was immediately very enthusiastic,” he mentioned, including that they by no means anticipated her to win.

“The election result came as a huge surprise. Satoko defeated the conservative mayor in office. Apparently, her political message appealed to many citizens. Satoko wants less privatisation and more citizen participation,” he added.

According to The Guardian, Kishimoto, who edited a guide on alternate options to water privatisation, gained by solely 200 votes after overcoming her opponents’ accusations of her prolonged Belgian residence.