Puranik Yogendra

Yogi aka Yogendra Puranik is the first Indian origin person 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.

Yogi was born in small village of Ambarnath, in the suburbs of Mumbai, India on June 3, 1977 to Rekha Puranik, his mother, who worked as a stitch and teacher and Sharad Puranik, his father, who worked as a machinist in Ordnance Factory in Ambarnath. Yogi has an elder sister named Nilima Potnis and younger brother named Rahul Puranik.

Yogi started his schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central School) Ambarnath. In the mid of 11th grade, his father was transferred to Pune, following which he joined Kendriya Vidyalaya Southern Command and later passed the high school from Kendriya Vidyalaya Dehu Road in 1994. He then joined the Sir Parashurambhau (S.P.) College under the Pune University to study undergraduate program in Science (Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.)) with specialization in Physics and Mathematics. He also joined Foreign Languages Department (Ranade Institute) of Pune University to study Japanese and German languages and Datamatics Corporation, a private Information Technology school, to study computer science.

Yogi finished his Diploma in information technology in May 1996 and Advance Diploma in Japanese Language in May 1997. Yogi was awarded with the Study Tour award, a scholarship from The Japan Foundation (under Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to visit Japan for a month in September 1997. This was the time, Yogi got attracted towards Japan. He was again awarded a scholarship by The Japan Foundation to study in Japan for one academic year from September 1999.

Yogi later left studying science and completed his Bachelors and master's degree in International and Labor Economics from Pune University. He finished an International Business Management program from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) with focus on strategies for doing global business. Yogi attended Skema Business School (previously known as ESC Lille) in France to study Strategic Project Management including qualitative and quantitative analysis methods and research techniques.

In April 1996, Yogi started working for a small scale IT company in Pune called Sutra Systems. He was also associated with Geometric Software solutions, Mahindra British Telecom and Keihin FIE Private Limited before coming to Japan in the year 2001. In Japan, Yogi worked for information technology companies Infosys Technologies Limited, Fujifilm and Polaris software Lab Limited before moving to Mizuho Bank in 2010 as Vice President of Operations Strategy. Since then, Yogi has been in the banking field. His last position was at Rakuten Bank as Vice Director of Corporate Planning where he managed departments for business planning, budget planning, business automation, fraud detection & legal affairs, before taking the position of City Councilor.

Yogi married Zhang Zhe, a professor of Japanese Language, in August 2001. They were blessed with a baby boy Chinmay Puranik on 7th June 2002. Due to geographical preferences, Yogi and Zhe decided to divorce each other in April 2007. Chinmay stays with Yogi in Japan. He studied in Indian international school, Japanese public school and a school in Reading, United Kingdom.

Yogi has been active, all the time, in his social network and ecosystem. Wherever he lived, he became a part of the local organizations. He associated himself with local festivals, voluntary work and so on. He has been very active in Edogawa working and connecting with multiple spheres across festival organizations, women, PTA and sports organizations.

Yogi started Indian Home Food Restaurant Reka in Tokyo, in February 2013, as a social venture to spread the real Indian home food in Japan. His restaurant has been highly successful winning trust of thousands of Indian food maniacs from within and outside Japan. His restaurant received Mayor's award in 2016 and has been a continuous pick by the television channels and endless popular magazines in Japan. His mother Rekha Puranik, being the main chef, has been the pillar of this success.

Yogi opened his 2nd restaurant in end of year 2016 and with this he established Edogawa India Culture Center (EICC) where he hosts around 50 live concerts every year mainly around Indian classical music and dances and collaborates with music and art from other countries. This center also hosts weekly classes for Yoga, music, Indian languages, Indian culture, Indian mythology and so on. Yogi created lot of literature on India, Indian culture, Spices and Indian food etc. which is quite popular in the concerned circles.

In year 2016, when there was a political move in Tokyo Edogawa to create a Little India, Yogi sensed that the model was not socially healthy and sustainable, and did not take into consideration the day-to-day needs of the society / community. The objectives of the project were influenced by a handful of people. As a social volunteer, Yogi tried to convince the local administration to take public opinion however it did not work. It was this time when Yogi thought of being on the other side.

Yogi announced his candidature in the regional elections that took place in April 2019 in Japan. Yogi won with a large margin, with a logical and timely positioning of mandate and convincing the voters with powerful speeches. Yogi was supported by The Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) which the largest opposition party.

Yogi plans to implement a methodological approach for analyzing the current status of services offered by the Edogawa administration. To do this Yogi is building a metrics based tool by keeping target audience (like individual, corporate, others) on the X axis and keeping their needs and issues on the Y axis and then mapping the currently offered services to each cross-section. This will help the administration gauge the white spots and focus to strengthen those areas.

Yogi would like to recommend good practices from frameworks like Smart City and Sustainable Development Goals and try educate the Councillors and Bureaucrats on these frameworks. This would lead to an all-round thinking and analysis across all departments of administration leading to balanced and well-thought actions for the development of the city in the right direction.

Yogi emphasizes on balance between body, mind and soul. He gives equal importance to physical health, knowledge and philosophy. In case of education, Yogi places same emphasis on academic as well as co-curricular education.