Masked Pro Wrestler Elected Top Vote-Getter in Kawanishi; Council Lets Him Wear His Mask in the Chamber
When the Kawanishi city council in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, held its first plenary session after the election on November 9, one councilor took his seat wearing a gold mask. He is Billyken Kid, a 52-year-old masked professional wrestler with Osaka Pro Wrestling who won the October 18 Kawanishi city council election with 4,040 votes, the highest total of any candidate, becoming the first masked-wrestler councilor in Hyogo Prefecture.
Billyken Kid debuted in 1996, comes from Tokyo's Adachi Ward, and moved to Kawanishi 16 years ago, where he has long organized wrestling festivals and visited welfare facilities. In the election, 37 candidates contested 24 seats; running as an unaffiliated newcomer in his mask, he finished nearly 1,000 votes ahead of the runner-up. Accepting his certificate on October 19, he said he wanted to give back to the city, hoped to serve as the council's "billboard" to draw interest in politics, and intended to work in his masked persona.
The post-election question was whether he could wear the mask in the chamber. On November 6, a meeting of the council's faction representatives decided to allow it, on conditions: his identity is verified by the speaker and others viewing his unmasked face before entry, he must wear the same mask as on his campaign posters, he must conduct himself properly, and he will not wear the mask at ceremonies such as memorials and funerals. On November 9 he attended his first plenary session in the mask under that decision.
Japan has precedents for masked wrestlers in politics: The Great Sasuke served in the Iwate prefectural assembly and Super Delfin in the Izumi city council in Osaka. Billyken Kid is the latest in that line.
Source: The Yomiuri Shimbun
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：日本兵库县川西市市政厅（资料图）。图：Bittercup，CC BY-SA 3.0，经维基共享资源 / Kawanishi City Hall in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan (file photo). Photo by Bittercup, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
