1978 Biggest-tent Party

[Mito]

Haoka 1978, Aki Oh is visiting her sister’s place on the other side of the city. The occasion was her nephew’s birthday. The tradition of celebrating birthdays was a relatively new one in the country, only about twenty years old at the time and mostly reserved for children. The guests were mostly members of the Oh family visiting as the father’s side lived on another island. Flying from one island to another for a mere birthday was seen as quite frivolous. However, despite this a few members of the Furuta family did make the trip most notably the father’s mother and brother.

As she stepped inside the house, she was greeted by the young eight-year-old to whom she gave his gift, a robot figure with wings called a Mega Galaxy Fighter. The boy thanked her and hurried back to the living room after which she was greeted by her sister, Rika. In the living room, the father was installing the parents’ gift: a game system, the Colour Home Arcade. The piece of technology cost a pretty penny, however, since the boy had done exceptionally well in school and his father had received a hefty seasonal bonus at work, the parents decided to reward him. As the system was installed, the screen turned green and white and he began joyfully playing. 

“I’ve seen that before.” Aki said, recognizing the game.

“Oh, you know it?” Her sister asked.

“I’ve seen it in arcades. Impressive how compact it’s been made.”

“I guess when the makers don’t have to worry about providing a screen they can cut down the size quite a bit.” Remarked Daichi, Rika’s brother-in-law.

And so began the small talk about a topic all too common at these family gatherings: change. At first the guests marvelled at the fast development of technology to the chorus of “I wonder what they’ll come up with next?” and “You never know how things are gonna change.” The same declarations of “Oh how things were different back then.” and “That wouldn’t have happened then.” were spoken like clockwork by the older guests.

Eventually the conversation found its way to another topic, a relatively new one in family conversations: Aki’s career. Some four years earlier she made national headlines as one of the country’s youngest politicians having been elected into Haoka’s city council at the incredibly young age of 29. Her surprise election win drew the gaze of national media and the seemingly never-ending fascination of her family. This was for good reason as the Oh family only a generation back was primarily poor factory workers and farmers before that. So the fact that a member of such a family now held the prestigious role of an elected public official made Aki quite the bigshot in this small circle and often the topic of conversation.

As talk went on, Daichi noted, semi-humorously, that “It must be auspicious to have a last name that means ruler when running for office.”

This brought the question of just how does one get into a position of political power in the country. The Five Provinces have been ruled by a single party, the GDT, ever since the mid 1900s. Therefore, the primary job of political filtering, the process of choosing who is and isn’t put into positions of political power, falls on the shoulders of this long-ruling party. To accomplish this task, it employs two ideologies which it views as congruent and conducive to its success: Technocracy and Meritocracy. 

The two traditional ways of gaining political power in the country are therefore: to leverage a previous career or climbing the party ladder. If one has a successful career and can even perhaps be considered an expert in their field, they could easily leverage it to get on the party list for an elected position. The GDT places a high premium on expertise and as a result, people with long careers discontent with years of office politics find it surprisingly easy to enter into national politics. 

The second way which could broadly be referred to as meritocratic was climbing the party ladder. This was the way of choice of Aki who began the arduous process at a young age by joining the GDT’s youth organisation. Much of her free time was dedicated to her early political career: participating in and setting up events, volunteering even excessively at times, handing out flyers, etc. Aki had a keen interest in the mundane aspects of democracy. She eventually caught the interest of a senior party member who was a representative in the country’s Diet. Impressed by her determination and motivation, Mr Otake took her under his wing and became a mentor figure. She gained much insight into the functioning of the party and became even more determined to rise its ranks. No later than when her studies of Chemistry concluded, had she begun to look for openings. Eventually one showed itself in her city’s upcoming elections. With a recommendation from a high-ranking serving representative, she got to the coveted party list and alongside some forty other GDT members, assumed her new office.

The emphasis on either expertise or proven ability often led to significantly older candidates having the upper hand which often made Aki stick out due to her young age. Thus Daichi’s comment still did carry some weight. Chance did play its role in Aki’s career as in most other things. Her political career was set in the background of political reform. Mitonese politics have always suffered from the curse of nepotism. Family and somewhat rarer clan connections were often necessary in order to attain high office. Yet, the current governor, Hagiwara, had risen to the position without such ties partly due to decreasing voter participation and consequently espoused the merits of meritocracy. So came down the order from the party head to get new blood into the membership and to discourage family ties when considering candidates. “Energise politics” became a slogan inside the party. Aki who had been a party member for close to ten years at the time, was promoted to deputy chairperson of the GDT two years after being elected to the Haoka’s city council. Throughout her career, Aki bore witness to the power of the office of governor partly being a product of it.

As the conversation neared its end, one of the relatives asked Aki if she had any future plans about where to go next or whether she’d stay in the council, she responded with “I’m going to run for a seat in the Diet in this year’s election.”