Since winning a seat in the Edogawa City Council as the first Indian-born politician in Japan, Puranik Yogendra has garnered much deserved international attention. Particularly in his home of Nishi-kasai, Edogawa in Tokyo, Puranik Yogendra — or Yogi-san, as he prefers to be called — has long been known for his advocacy for a unified community. While much has already been said about his past as a volunteer and his present as a councilman, the complexity of his work and his plans are always worth diving further into.
Who is Yogi-san?
To those who know him, Yogi-san is a leader by example, a man who has always taken the time to affect change in his community. He is an inspiring individual who creates opportunities and someone who has devoted much of his life to community service.
Initially coming to Japan twice during the 1990’s on government scholarships, Yogi-san was eventually employed at an IT company in Japan in 2001.
A family man, he felt homesick being away from his family and decided to move back to India after a few months. Around this time, Yogi-san married his then-girlfriend and in 2002, their son was born. Shortly after, his wife decided to move back to her hometown and Yogi-san was left to raise their son as a single father with the help of his mother.
He eventually moved back to Japan and brought his son with him in 2003. Up until this point in time, he described his life as “sublime,” focusing on himself, his son, and his career.
Yogi-san Moves to Edogawa
In mid-2005, after having lived in Nakano, Machida and Chiba, Yogi-san set his eyes on Edogawa in Tokyo where a large Indian community resides. He had heard of conflicts between Japanese and Indian locals, but forged ahead. The family of two moved into a danchi (団地; public housing complex) that offered better facilities for his young son.
Around this time, Yogi-san, in his spirit of volunteerism, started helping at local festivals. Not long after, his neighbors began reaching out to him to resolve disputes between Japanese and Indian community members by bridging the language gap. In 2006, he became an official member of the housing committee. He would continue to manage the 1,532 residences — 150 of which were Indian families — for six years.
“It’s not that they don’t want to follow (the rules), it’s that they don’t know. They don’t know what are the rules.”
Closing the Information Gap
At a time when information in English was rarer than it is today, Yogi-san’s role was pivotal in bringing his community closer together. Drawing from his background as an IT manager and banker, he began to dissect the problems between Japanese and foreign residents. Taking a holistic approach, Yogi-san surveyed both sides to hear their concerns, then worked to bridge misunderstandings.
“If there was something in English, some communication in English, I think foreigners would not have left Japan.”
In what appeared to be a catch-22, neither side made any moves to communicate problems and solutions. The conflicts, it transpired, stemmed from Indian residents being unaware of Japanese rules and therefore failing to observe them. On the other hand, the information they needed to follow those rules was inaccessible. Furthermore, until Yogi-san, there had been no one within the danchi who could close the information gap. “It’s not that they don’t want to follow (the rules), it’s that they don’t know. They don’t know what are the rules,” shares Yogi-san.
“Whatever I experienced, I started sharing.”
Yogi-san stressed the importance of accessible information for all residents. “In fact, even when I shifted from Machida to Chiba and Chiba to here [Edogawa], the rules are different,” he said, describing his experiences moving around Kanto.
He added that the availability of language support not only opens up Japan to foreigners but also opens foreigners to the possibility of establishing their lives here. “If there was something in English, some communication in English, I think foreigners would not have left Japan,” he said of the mass exodus in the aftermath of the fateful 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that devastated the nation.
Bringing the Community Together
With his newfound influence, Yogi-san started to introduce some measure of cultural integration. He convinced festival organizers to include Indian dances before the festival proper. And in 2010, he managed to convince the organizers to allow Korean and Chinese dances in a hardfought campaign for greater community integration. “Whatever I experienced, I started sharing,” he said of this new beginning.
Ever the trailblazer, Yogi-san was at the forefront of utilizing technology to address the needs of his local community. He led by example in ensuring that information was shared among the Indian residents of his danchi. He accomplished this by establishing communication networks through SNS and then online hotspots Orkut and Yahoo! Groups. Yogi-san took into his own hands the duty of creating, in his words, “a structured format of information.”
From 2012, Yogi-san started reaching out to different Indian communities and in 2018, formed the All Japan Association of Indians. This marked the beginning of his goal to create a “bible” for people coming to Japan. He humbly began working towards this by focusing on serving the information needs of the Indian community in Edogawa.
In 2013, Yogi-san and his family left the danchi, having finally finished building his own house in Nishi-kasai. Unfortunately, the cultural dances he had fought hard for left with him.
Undeterred, Yogi-san made bids to create multilingual informational videos for the benefit of foreign residents in Edogawa. He even volunteered to create some himself. Alas, his offer fell on deaf ears. It would be this disappointing experience that inspired Yogi-san to run for a seat on the Edogawa City Council.
A Warmer Assembly in Edogawa
In Edogawa, Yogi-san won the 5th highest vote count of the 44 council members in a well-publicized victory. He fondly recalls his viral slogan「議会を温めてまいります。」(gikai o atatamete mairimasu; lit. “I will warm up the assembly”) that came about at the end of his campaign.
He believes that his promise resonated with Japanese voters who wanted to breathe new life into local politics. It was this demographic, particularly young Japanese voters and Korean and Chinese voters that carried Yogi-san to his meteoric win.
He explains that he is one of only five council members in their 20’s to 40’s and one of only two independent candidates. Which suggests, Yogi-san feels that his supporters want to inject new thinking to a city council built by generations of political dynasties. After all, he says, it is their job to work for the interests of the community at large.
The Right Person for the Job
One major problem that Yogi-san sees hindering community building is the use or promotion of stereotypical mascots. As he puts it, “mascots” (unofficial representatives of a given ethnic community) are selected by the city administration to become the point person for contact between the city administration and that community.
Yogi-san sees this as an ineffective method of connecting with foreign communities. “What is peculiar about these mascots is that they actually (only) talk about what the Japanese would like to hear; they don’t say (what) the Japanese don’t like to hear,” he says.
He confronted the problem head-on by speaking frankly with the Head of City Planning, saying, ”These are not our leaders. These are just mascots that you created. Nobody said that this is the guy.”
When he was told that the system works, he replied with, “What do you mean by working? It has not been working. From your perspective, because you are just having a sliced view, to the extent that you gave the information and then you are under the impression that they (mascots) are giving the information to (the) community which you don’t want to do (yourself).”
Yogi-san says that for the administration to do its job properly, it must be more proactive in its approach to the community. “You don’t need to actually go into that catch-22 situation: you are not asking, I’m not giving. The role of administration is (to) go and listen to what people (need). You are not waiting for the taxes, you are pulling the taxes. So the same way, if you are pulling the taxes, you also have to pull the needs,” he explains. “Your work is going and listening to the needs of the people.”
Moving Beyond Identity Politics
Despite advocating for the acceptance and integration of the foreign community into Japanese society, Yogi-san confesses that he prefers not to make such distinctions. He prefers not to identify issues with a particular group of people but rather gather viewpoints from all members of the community. He believes that identity politics tends to create more division than cohesion in the larger community.
“It’s very important how you collect a 360⁰ view of every situation or every problem, every issue.”
One thing that stands out about Yogi-san’s work as a politician is the way he applies his business background to addressing issues facing the community. In resolving issues with multiple stakeholders, he stresses that solutions must be constructed methodically. “If there is a school, if you ask the principle, ‘How are your teachers feeling?’ or ‘How are your students feeling?’ The principle will have his own view. The teachers will have a different view. The students themselves will have a different view. And if there are any social volunteers in the school, they will have a different view.”
For this reason, Yogi-san chooses to focus his mental capital on addressing the needs of the whole community, although he does admit that individual needs must also be addressed. He explains, “It’s very important how you collect a 360⁰ view of every situation or every problem, every issue. It is then very important how you go on putting that issue into a structure. I normally suggest to them (administrative leaders) a 2-dimensional structure where on one side we have the issue or the life cycle and on the other we have all different sets of people.”
What’s Next for Yogi-san?
He challenges his fellow council members by asking them, “How do you put it (the viewpoint) in a structured manner to actually come to a better understanding of the issue? And then you prioritize.”
Yogi-san uses the example of a major typhoon hitting Edogawa, where the majority of the city is under sea-level, yet the single-level housing structures don’t take a potential major flooding incident into consideration. “We should design a city so that Japanese and foreigners are living well together; (therefore) the diversity is taken care of by default.”
When asked about providing support for foreign women, Yogi-san agrees that the issue requires a new framework. He says that the Japanese government eagerly employs foreigners from overseas while neglecting one of the biggest resources they have already in the country; the spouses of foreign residents who more often than not are women. “You’re not trying to utilize the foreigners that are already here and the biggest chunk is (sic) the spouses. They want to work and they’re not getting the opportunity to work. It’s important how you recognize the strength of those people and put it into execution,” he explains.
Throughout his 15 years living in Edogawa, Yogi-san has always acted with the best interests of the community in mind. It is this sincere fervor that has allowed and continues to allow him to shape the way Edogawa lives and breathes. Perhaps for now, it might still be a drop in the ocean, so to speak, but if more like-minded people act as Yogi-san does, a truly diverse Japan might not be just a pipedream after all.
The next step for Yogi-san is moving up the political ladder, aiming for either a national-level or mayoral position. He will bring with him his plans, concepts, and frameworks on key work areas for reforms. Yogi-san wants to introduce methods such as 2D and 3D matrices for structured analysis and prioritization of existing problems. The main two reforms he hopes to achieve are in city planning and education. He believes that educational reforms are crucial to creating a diverse and strong Japan.
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