Can you imagine someone who was originally just a civil servant in a municipal office and can now be elected to a city councilor?
In Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, last year, there was such a person, Junko Inoue. She originally just regarded COSPLAY as a personal hobby of civil servants, inadvertently cosco "Banana Princess Luna" for the local government to promote sightseeing, and then gained a lot of popularity among the citizens, last year she ran for the first time as a non-party city councilor, and was actually elected as the first highest vote!
Junko Inoue, a newly promoted city councilor in Kitakyushu City, Japan, is 35 years old.
Junko Inoue was elected in her first run in the city council election on January 31, 2021 last year. In her constituency, a total of 21 candidates ran for 15 city council places, and she received 6,919 votes from the first constituency without party membership!
But the reason for her election to the city council was very unexpected...
"I was recognized as a COSPLAY civil servant by the municipal government, 'Banana Princess Luna'..."
"It was only then that I started to change jobs, and this was the opportunity to run for city councilor."
Junko Inoue was originally born and raised in Kitakyushu City. Later, he was admitted to the municipal office in Kitakyushu City, where he worked as a civil servant in social welfare affairs and was the mother of three children.
In 2005, junko Inoue was admitted to work at the city office of her hometown when she was 18 years old.
During the period of about 10 years of running the social welfare business at the municipal office, Junko Inoue became well known in the unit because of her interest in COSPLAY...
Junko Inoue participated in halloween dress-up events held by the city government
The superiors also knew that Junko Inoue liked COSPLAY, so he proposed a bold idea to her...
"Do you want to just use COSPLAY to promote Kitakyushu City?"
In 2015, Junko Inoue was transferred to the "Tourism Class" as a civil servant, and the following year she became the first COSPLAY publicity tourism civil servant in Japan to receive the certification of the city government as Banana Princess Luna (バナナルナ) as a banana princess!
"It was at that time that I played Luna, a banana princess who was not well known at that time."
"A lot of people praise me for being "very high in terms of cosplay for civil servants," and I'm often featured in the news media."
This is the "Banana Princess Luna" played by Junko Inoue.
Television stations and the media rushed to report
As the media from all over Japan rushed to report on the COSPLAY civil servant, the city government thought that this publicity project was very successful, so it actively let Junko Inoue participate in sightseeing promotion activities everywhere!
So Junko Inoue, whose popularity soared, began to wonder if she could use her popularity to improve the affairs of her hometown...
"It was reported nearly 100 times a year."
"It's also thanks to Princess Banana that many people know me."
"That's why I was able to run for parliament with a high first place vote."
However, since Banana Princess Luna is recognized as a mascot and tourism ambassador in Kitakyushu City, in order to avoid misunderstanding the public that the municipal government openly supports specific candidates, Junko Inoue has been sealing the COSPLAY Banana Princess Luna since Junko Inoue announced her candidacy!
Junko Inoue COSPLAY's banana princess Luna
In other civil servants are still relying on the years of work to promote, the young Junko Inoue but with their own small hobbies and interests to step up, proper can be regarded as a winner in the civil service, feel that sometimes outsiders inadvertently say a word may wish to listen to try, maybe the opportunity will come, just like Jobs said: life is a process of connecting dots into a line, some experiences may not see its meaning at first, but maybe after a few years will play its unique role.