A Huge Crowd Gathered in Front of Gardens Yesterday Osaka Governor Yoshimura Apparently Used to Live in Nishinomiya

Yesterday, 3/22 (Sun.), a huge crowd had gathered at Hinata Ryokuchi in front of Hankyu Nishinomiya Gardens.

This is by the deck that leads from Nishinomiya-kitaguchi Station to Gardens. There were a lot of people around.

Many of them were looking toward the park.

So many people at Hinata Ryokuchi, the green space where the police box is!!!

It looks like there was going to be a street speech by “Masatake Tanaka,” who announced his candidacy for the Nishinomiya mayoral election on March 22 (Sun.). Still, what a crowd.

Yoshimura, the Osaka governor and a member of Nippon Ishin no Kai, was coming too!

There were also quite a few police officers, so it felt very well guarded.

The media were here too.

Or so I thought, but the person in front was Hyogo Prefectural Assembly member Masuyama. He was livestreaming

The person on the left is Masatake Tanaka. And there were so many people there, from Liberal Democratic Party Diet members to Ishin no Kai lawmakers and Nishinomiya city assembly members from other factions.

Oh, there’s someone even more familiar~~

It’s Chief Priest Nishii of Hirota Shrine~

Apparently, he serves as the head of Masatake Tanaka’s support group.

Of course it’s a beer crate! They covered the maker, but you can still tell lol

What was funny was that he kept repeating “Masatake Tanaka” even more than an election campaign announcer would. And Tanaka grinning at that was hilarious lol

The person shaking hands with Chief Priest Nishii is Kaneko, a pastor and the head of Hyogo Ishin no Kai! A handshake between a shrine and Christianity is pretty exciting lol

And a heavyweight supporter! Shinsuke Suematsu, a Liberal Democratic Party member of the House of Councillors and former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, also came to show support.

When he said, “A country cannot move forward with politics that does nothing out of fear of failure. It is important to move politics forward, even if it means taking risks,” I felt that it could apply to many things, not just politics. Taking on challenges is scary, after all~

This familiar face in Nishinomiya, Liberal Democratic Party member “Kenji Yamada,” also came by. He became State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, right?

It was also memorable how he described Tanaka as a candidate who can work in coordination with the national, prefectural, and city governments. Being able to get in touch quickly seems like a real strength.

On top of that, a message from Prime Minister Takaichi was introduced, and Taro Aso said in an audio message that Tanaka’s decision to give up his position as a city assembly member after 22 years and take on this challenge “requires extraordinary resolve.” Tanaka resigned from the assembly last October to run for mayor

“Yumi Kamitani,” who worked in the same political group as Masatake Tanaka for eight years in the past, is running in the city assembly by-election.

Her words left an impression: “If Mayor Masatake Tanaka is born, I want to become an assembly member again. I want to serve as an assembly member under Mayor Masatake Tanaka.”

There were all kinds of supporters too, including members of the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors, and even Akashi city assembly members.

Kee Miki is an Ishin member in the House of Representatives, but since she’s from Nishinomiya, they shared this handshake across party lines. She looked kind of happy.

While all that was going on, an Alphard pulled in~

It’s Yoshimura~~!

Up he goes~

Looks like they’re having fun.

Surprisingly, these two are the same age. They were born in 1975. I guess they’re both 50

Even more surprising, Yoshimura apparently lived in Nishinomiya before.