I'm going home this weekend for forty-ninth day after a mother's death, so today I'm going with my wife to vote for the mayor and city council members on the day before the election.

However, I hadn't received the election pamphlet, so I walked to the civic center to get it (although I was disappointed to find out later that it was included in that day's morning paper).

However, it was really boring, and I had to re-read the campaign literature three times.

- Candidates who describe a large amount of small print are dismissed as 'little brain'.

- I reject all candidates from cretain political parties that claim to be "against school closures!"

- Candidates who use only abstract words such as "wasteful spending," "welfare," and "bullying" in their headlines and do not write any concrete measures are also rejected.

- I reject candidates who take up 1/3 of the paper in their own profile.

- Candidates who write 10 or 20 pledges are also rejected.

They were "disastrous campaign gazettes" that enforced all the prohibitions on presentation that I had been told 'never to do' in my first five years of technical writing training.

In the end, I chose the candidate (and only one) who had listed specific numbers, in millions of yen.

I think Ebata's mind would have been at its best if there were some graphs or other information here -- none of the candidates were like that.

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Ebata: "Isn't it popular to have a candidate who specifically mentions numbers?"

Wife: "Yes. On the contrary, it's even 'bad impression'."

In other words, it seems that an election strategy that is liked by me is an election strategy that is avoided by the majority.

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My wife said that she would vote for the candidate of my choice.

I thought to myself, "No, no, no, that's not it", however, city council elections are not like national elections, information about the candidates is not available.

There may be a way to "believe in the ideas of those who vote".