Japan's first party of naturalized citizens kicks off election campaign in Shin-Okubo

Jeong Jae-wook (Japanese name: Tei Akira), co-leader of Shinseito — a Tokyo-based political party made up of naturalized Japanese citizens — took to the streets of Shin-Okubo in Shinjuku, Tokyo, on Wednesday for the party's first joint street speech. The appearance marked his first public campaign activity since announcing his candidacy for the Shinjuku ward assembly election next April.

Jeong, who describes himself as "a Shinjuku resident born in Korea," said in a message to supporters that he would continue going out into the streets of Shinjuku to meet and engage with residents directly. He also said he wanted to give back to Japan and the local community through politics, in return for what the neighborhood had given him over the years.

Shinseito announced its founding at a press conference at the Japan Press Center in Tokyo on Sept. 14. The party's name combines the first syllable of "Shinjuku" and the first syllable of "Setagaya," the two Tokyo wards where its founders are based. It currently holds no seats and operates as an extraparliamentary party, with the Tokyo metropolitan area as its zone of activity.

The party is led by a lawmaker of Uzbek origin who won a seat on the Setagaya ward assembly in 2023, with Jeong serving as co-leader. The two said this is the first time naturalized Japanese citizens have formed a political organization.

Jeong is originally from Busan. He came to Japan as a student in 1985 and has spent roughly 40 years in Shinjuku, becoming a naturalized citizen along the way. He had served as chairman of the Shinjuku Korean Merchants Association, a group centered on self-employed Korean business owners in the Shin-Okubo Koreatown, but recently stepped down from that role to pursue his candidacy.

The value he champions is multicultural coexistence. At the party's founding press conference, Jeong said that "true multicultural coexistence means building a society where people can respect one another and live safely together, regardless of nationality or background, while abiding by Japan's laws and the rules of the local community." On the growing debate in Japanese society over foreign residents, he stressed that "what matters is a society where people can talk, understand each other and live together, rather than excluding one another."