Interview by Michael Glazer (Chiba-ken, 1995-97)
Want to hear the full interview? Click here to get the podcast.
Bensonhurst, Brooklyn native Anthony Bianchi (Aichi-ken, 1987-91), the first-ever North American to hold an elected position in Japan, is still going strong in his role as a city councilman in Inuyama-shi, Aichi-ken. 
Michael Glazer: You have a very interesting background. How does a JET program teacher become a city council member?
Anthony Bianchi: Well, I’ll try to make the story as short as possible. I studied filmmaking at New York University and I was interested in Kurasawa films and whatnot, and I was out in L.A. for a while. I came back to New York. I was working for New York City and I saw an ad in the paper about the Expo that was held in Gifu about 20 years ago. So I went over to Japan on a homestay program and decided it would be nice to try to live there for a year or so. I joined the JET program, stayed for a couple years, and decided I wanted to stay longer.
I was teaching, working for the Board of Education in Inuyama, and I kind of got involved in the administrative aspects of it. I was banging my head against a lot of brick walls and finding that I had to get in touch with the mayor and the city council people to help back up what we were doing. I finally got to a point where I got tired of complaining about things and needing other people’s help, so I decided to try and do something myself. I ran in the election and somehow I got elected, believe it or not.
MG: Once you were elected into office, were there any things early on that struck you as unexpected? Read More
Obama-shi, Japan is so happy about the US election, they’ve come up with a song and video about it. Meanwhile, have you ever written a song in Japanese (or partly in Japanese)? Let me know and I’ll post it, or perhaps we can collaborate with other JET alums to come up with a tune and/or record it. Just email me at stevenwaseda at-mark jetwit dotto com.
Roland Kelts (Osaka, 1998-99) just got back to Tokyo and shared this NPR clip about Haruki Murakami which includes some comments from Roland. Have a listen.
