Japan welcomes its first manga creator to House of Councillors

Jul 11 (comicbook.com) - It seems history has been made in Japan thanks to voters and none other than mangaka Ken Akamatsu.

If you did not know, the creator of Love Hina and others announced last year he planned to run for office in the House of Councillors. And thanks to new reports from Japan, we've learned Akamatsu won the vote to become the first mangaka to join Japan's legislative body.

The news comes from the Liberal Democratic Party overseas as the group announced Akamatsu had secured enough votes in the 26th House of Councillors election to win his seat. The seat won puts Akamatsu in the upper house of Japan's House of Representatives and will stand for the LDP nationwide. This victory comes after Akamatsu announced he would run for election last winter and even ended one of his ongoing manga to dedicate time to his campaign.

For those who have kept up with the election, you will know that Akamatsu pursued this shift into politics because he worried the nation's freedom of expression was being curtailed. In 2011, the artist first commented on this ideology when Japan's Copyright Law began weighing amendments that Akamatsu disagreed with. ...continue reading

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