Tokyo Gubernatorial Election 2020: Candidate Profile for Hitoshi Ishii

This is the 15th post introducing candidates in the Tokyo governor race.

Check the other candidate profiles using these links: Koike; Utsunomiya; Ono; Yamamoto; Sakurai; Komiyama; Takemoto; Nishimoto; Sekiguchi; Oshikoshi; Horiemon New Party; Goto; Sawa; Ichikawa.

The goal of these profiles is to get readers to know all the candidates on one website. I want to help people find information with minimal effort.

This post will focus on Hitoshi Ishii and his policies.

Bio

2020 Policies

1. COVID-19 response

• Use the prevention/treatment medication created by Ishii himself (uses urea)

2. Tokyo Olympic Games

• Host the Olympic games next year (created a drug that works)

3. Strive for a transparent government

• Disclose all information on the Internet
• Livestream assembly sessions online
• Release the budget-making process to the public
• Close the revolving door between government & affiliated companies by privatizing them or incorporating them into the government 

4. Children on nursery school waiting lists

• Register babysitters as contract employees of the government
  • Need to be licensed babysitters + the pay will be 1500 yen per hour
• Procure funds by cutting excessive expenditures (that will be done through transparency-no favoritism)

5. Senior citizens on elderly care waiting lists 

• Register caretakers as contract employees of the government 

6. Solve the issue of densely populated wooden houses 

• Need to take time and use money to redevelop these areas

7. Wealth disparity

• Improve efficiency + raise the minimum wage to 1500 yen (approx. $14)
  • Raising wages will reduce the number of competitive small/mid-sized businesses (too many)
• Aim for equal pay to get rid of the employment gap between full + part time workers 

8. Issues of an aging population & declining birth rates

• Redistribute income 
• Raise the minimum wage to reduce uncertainties younger generations feel 
• Provide 1,000,000 yen (approx. $9300) to couples that get married
• Provide 1,000,000 yen to those who give birth to children
• Provide child benefit/allowances with income restrictions

9. Educational disparity

• Foster young adults who will contribute to society (should stop using the education system that focuses on memorizing instead of thinking)
  • Should stop using only paper exams to evaluate students
• Aim to create job searches that don’t prioritize class ranking + deviation scores 
• Eliminate discrimination based on educational background

First Impressions

• How was a freelance journalist (ex-banker) able to develop a cure for COVID-19?
• Some policies are well thought out, while others are simple one-line statements
• Agree that the education system needs to change (too much emphasis on memorizing dates/events than problem solving)