Yogendra Puranik
Yogendra Puranik, is an Indian-born Japanese politician and the first person of Indian origin to win an election in Japan. He was elected to the Tokyo's Edogawa City assembly as City Councillor in April 2019. He was supported by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
In April 2022, Puranik was appointed as the Principal of in the Ibraraki prefecture.
Early Life
Puranik was born in Ambarnath, Mumbai, India, on 3 June 1977 to his parents Rekha and Sharad Puranik.Puranik started his schooling at Kendriya Vidyalaya in Ambarnath. He graduated from Sir Parashurambhau College under the Pune University with a Bachelor of Science degree with specializations in physics and mathematics. He also joined the Foreign Languages Department of the Ranade Institute of to study Japanese and German languages, and Datamatics Corporation, a private information technology school, to study computer science. He graduated with a diploma in information technology in May 1996 and an advanced diploma in Japanese language in May 1997.
Puranik was awarded the Study Tour award, a scholarship from the Japan Foundation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to visit Japan for a month in September 1997. He was awarded another scholarship by the Japan Foundation to study in Japan for an academic year in September 1999.
Life in Japan
Puranic worked with multiple IT companies in India before moving to Japan in 2001. In Japan, he worked for the information technology companies Infosys Technologies Limited, Fujifilm, and Polaris Software Lab Limited before joining the Mizuho Bank in 2010 as Vice President of operations strategy. He later worked at Rakuten Bank as Vice Director of corporate planning.Puranik started an Indian restaurant Reka in Tokyo in February 2013 as a social venture to spread Indian homestyle food in Japan. He opened his second restaurant at the end of 2016. He has also established the Edogawa India Culture Center where he hosts events around Indian classical music and dances.
Political career
In 2016, there was a political movement in the Edogawa district of Tokyo to create a Little India. Puranik opposed the model stating it was not socially healthy and sustainable. As a volunteer, he tried to convince the local administration to consider public opinion, however, his efforts were unsuccessful.Puranik announced his candidacy in the regional elections that took place in April 2019 in Japan. He is currently a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party, the largest opposition party in Japan.
Puranik unsuccessfully contested in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly in the 2021 election, finishing in 7th place out of 8 candidates, with 9.3% of the vote.