A common conversation in American politics revolves around the involvement of money. The more money one has, the thinking goes, the more likely they are to take office.


This is usually true. Reporting from Open Secrets found that, in around 82 percent of Senate races of 2022, the candidate who spent more won; in the House, that percentage was almost 94 percent.


Other countries have seen this and thought, “That’s bad.” As a result, they’ve implemented strategies to try to even out the playing field. For example, in some countries and municipalities, all candidates are required to be given airtime on state broadcasters for their campaign.


This can give some smaller candidates recognition. It can also be a platform for dudes who dress up like the Joker to maniacally laugh on live TV.



According to Tokyo Weekender, “The man known as the Japanese Joker, though he is also sometimes dressed as the titular character from The Mask, has brought a lot of color, craziness and controversy to this year’s race to be governor.”


His proposed policies are also pretty daring. For example, he promotes polygamy to help address Japan’s declining birth rate, proposes legalizing marijuana in Shibuya and suggests renaming the ward “Shabuya” to reflect this (it’s Japanese slang for weed) and highlights the need for freedom of expression by hanging posters of “near-naked” models.


Amazingly, he’s not the only weirdo taking advantage of this. There’s another guy who appears to be wearing a luchadore mask. Maybe he’s promising to suplex the state’s debt? Who’s to say.



Honestly, seeing this, the only reasonable conclusion is that we need to do the same thing. That, or at the very least, we need to see Trump and Biden in Joker makeup. Maybe it will be the thing that finally brings this country together.