Shirt in the ring! Candidate strips in video to win votes in Tokyo gubernatorial election

She’s the breast candidate for the job.

An “entrepreneur” running for governor of Tokyo peeled off her shirt and asked viewers if they thought she was “sexy” enough to win votes in a bizarre video promoting her campaign.

In the footage, Airi Uchino of the populist right wing NHK Party is shown seated at a table wearing a button-up shirt as she addresses Japanese voters in a high-pitched, anime-style voice.

“I’m so cute; please watch my campaign broadcast,” she says with a coy smile in a video posted on X June 27. “Do you think I’m sexy?”

Uchino urges voters follow her on social media and promises to message them individually before stripping down to a tight, skin-colored tube top. She then leaned down in a position that made it appear on camera she was topless.

After getting that off her chest, the 33-year-old cocktail bar owner from Shizuoka took off her glasses and delivered the rest of her speech in the skimpy get up.

The strange video quickly went viral, raking more than 44 million views by Thursday.

But the naked truth is that she’s only after attention — not the governor’s seat, critics said.

“We’ve ended up living in a world where those who do something unusual win. However, a person without substance will always be exposed,” one critic wrote in Japanese on X.

Another fumed, “No matter how much you talk about freedom of speech in elections, this goes against public welfare.”

Tokyo will elect a new governor this weekend but the race has been marred by odd publicity stunts, including ones with pets, an AI character and a guy practicing his golf swing.

Some of the candidates aren’t earnestly actually vying to win but instead using the race to gain attention and social media followers, said Jeffrey Hall, a Kanda University of International Studies professor.

Uchino is reportedly also a photographer and the founder of a Pokemon card shop.

With Post Wires