Global Greens Statement 22 November 2010

Greens candidate Ms Kazumi Inamura was elected the City Mayor of Amagasaki on Sunday 21 November with an overwhelming 54.3% of the vote. This is the first time in Japan that a Green candidate has been elected to the position of Mayor and the Global Greens congratulate Kazumi Inamura and Greens Japan on this landmark success.

Aged 38 Ms Inamura is reportedly the youngest female city mayor in the history of Japan. She defeated three other candidates to win the mayoralty. The City of Amagasaki is one of the top 50 cities in Japan with 460,000 residents, located between Kobe and Osaka in west Japan. Ms Inamura campaigned strongly to continue her predecessor’s policies promoting participatory democracy and information disclosure and to add to this a suite of policies to implement her vision of an environmentally sustainable society. Kazumi Inamura was previously co-spokesperson of Greens Japan – Midori no Mirai. She represented Greens Japan at the 2008 Global Greens Congress in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and at the 1st and 2nd Asia Pacific Greens Network Conferences in Brisbane 2006 and Taipei 2010.