I’m assuming that a prefectural assembly in Japan has fairly limited political powers. A pro wrestler winning a seat to the Iwate Prefectural Assembly wouldn’t really be comparable to, say, winning the governship of Minnesota, right?
When did pro wrestling (with masks, no less) come to Japan? Is it popular?
I should make clear that in question 2, I’m asking about the American-style “pro rasslin’” as opposed to sumo or other legitimate, traditional Japanese sports.
I just want to say that, although Jesse Ventura did get action figures made up, they had him in a business suit, not spandex tights and feather boa (which is what he wore to the ring…).
I’m not Japanese, but I know a lot of Japanese people.
The Diet is the national legislative body. Prefectural are like our equivalent of state, so it as if he was elected to the “state’s congress”. Does that make sense?
My friend who studied in Japan for a while said that it is “fairly” popular and that she was invited by her host father to go see a match.
(1)This isn’t so much like being elected governor of Minnesota as being elected to the state senate of Minnesota, so he doesn’t have a whole lot of authority.
(2)Pro wrestling is pretty popular here, but I don’t think it compares to the WWF (or RAW, or whatever it’s called now) in the US. What’re really popular here, though, are real fighting events like K-1, Pride and Ultimate Fighting. While they seem to be treated as underground freak shows in the States, they’re all wildly popular with Japanese, with tournaments being broadcast on network prime-time, top-level celebrities doing the announcing, and top fighters (from all countries) doing TV ads for all sorts of products (American (and former SF 49er) Bob Sapp is currently endorsing DVD players, ice-cream bars, pachinko machines and box lunches while appearing on TV almost every day). When popular Swiss kickboxer Andy Hug died suddenly from leukemia in 2000, it was almost a national day of mourning. The draw for these events is much bigger than for any pro wrestling match, and a number of wrestlers have crossed over to fighting tournaments.
Actually, if I recall correctly, Murakawa isn’t the first pro wrestler to go into politics in Japan (I know sumo wrestler Kyokudozan was elected to the national assembly back around 1997 or so), but he’s probably the first to insist on wearing his old mask.
Oh yeah, as for when pro wrestling started in Japan, according to this site, the first post-war pro match in Japan was in 1951, but it doesn’t mention any pre-war bouts.
Nitpick: Japanese pro wrestling (puroresu) isn’t very similar to American pro-wrestling as a whole. The former’s generally much more intense, athletic, and well rounded than the latter.
Pro Wrestling has a fairly long and storied position in post war Japan. Rikidozan, a sumo-wrestler turned pro-wrestler, was almost single handedly responsible for the television industry in Japan. He was a powerful and handsome man, who brought pride back to the post-war Japanese by defeating his foreign foes. Of course Rikidozan was actually born in North Korea (unbeknownst to the majority of his Japanese fans), and he also had ties to the Yakuza. Still, if he had not been stabbed to death, it is highly likely that he would have won if he had run for any government office.
You can learn a lot about the bizarre life of Rikidozan, as well as learn a lot about organized crime and politics in Japan in Robert Whiting’s excellent book, “Tokyo Underworld.”
While Japanese pro-wrestlers could indeed be more intense and well-rounded athletes than their American counterparts, a competitor who puts on a “black and white full-face mask with bright scarlet streaks and golden wings by the eye holes” makes it hard for me to take the sport too seriously…