Ayako Fuchigami, wearing a pink jacket in front of a campaign vehicle with a sign in the same color, gave a simple message to the crowd that had gathered near an intersection here.

“We just want to live a normal life,” Fuchigami, 44, said in the microphone as rainbow flags waved in the background. “I want to create a society where opinions from diverse people are reflected.”

Her words resonated with enough people that she became Japan’s first openly transgender person elected to a prefectural assembly on April 7. During the campaign for the Hokkaido assembly, some criticized Fuchigami as being a flashy crowd-pleaser who might not be serious about policy. Fuchigami dismissed such criticism. Read more via Asahi