Mario Alberto Ishii

Mario Alberto Ishii (born 22 June 1951) is an Argentine politician of the Justicialist Party, currently serving as intendente (mayor) of José C. Paz, a partido in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. He is popularly known as El Japonés ("the Japanese") due to his Japanese heritage.^[1]

Mario Alberto Ishii
Mayor of José C. Paz
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 December 2015
Preceded by	Carlos Urquiaga
In office 10 December 1999 – 10 December 2013
Preceded by	Rubén Oscar Glaria
Succeeded by	Carlos Urquiaga
Provincial Senator of Buenos Aires
In office 10 December 2013 – 10 December 2015
Constituency	First Electoral Section
Personal details
Born	(1951-06-22) June 22, 1951 (age 73) Buenos Aires, Argentina
Political party	Justicialist Party

Daniel Scioli, Mario Alberto Ishii (center) and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at the official ceremony (January 17, 2008).

He was first elected mayor in 1999, and continued to be so until 2013, when he was elected to the as Buenos Aires Province Senate.^[2] In 2015, he was once again elected mayor.^[3]

In August 2020 a video was leaked, showing him accusing city workers of selling drugs in municipal ambulances and saying he had to cover for them, causing major national media attention and a legal case to be opened.^[1][2][4] He then claimed that when he said "drugs" he had meant "medicines".^[5]