Oregon City Mayoral Candidate Clarifies Comments About Japanese

OREGON CITY, OR —A candidate for mayor of Oregon City has penned an op-ed in a local publication clarifying comments he made about how Japanese people living in "small, compact areas" could serve as a model for housing the city's homeless population. The comments went viral.

Leslie Wright — who is set to face Oregon City Commission President Denyse McGriff in a special election on Aug. 23 —wrote in Pamplin Media Group that he was "disappointed and dismayed" about his own reference to Japanese people, which he made during a radio interview last month. The comments were reported in Pamplin's Oregon City News on June 18.

However, Wright, who is a retired U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Major, also took issue with how his comments were portrayed in the June 18 article.

"I am further dismayed about how my statement was worded to make it appear that I might be bigoted and harbor bad feelings against the Japanese," Wright wrote. "That is a false impression and it affects me deeply. I am compelled to address this issue of miscommunication."

In the June 18 story headlined "Oregon City mayoral candidate wants homeless to live like 'the Japanese,'" Oregon City News reported Wright's comments from a radio interview with host Lars Larson about how Wright would deal with the city's homeless problem.

"Have you ever seen the Japanese people, how they live? They live in these small, compact areas," Wright told Larson. "We're going to take each one of those (homeless) people and put them in their own little area and give them an address."

Wright began getting flak for these comments, with Yahoo News suggesting that while Wright "may have been alluding to the popular low-budget Japanese capsule hotels, his statement may also bring to mind the concentration camps with crowded living quarters that thousands of Japanese Americans were incarcerated in during World War II."

Yahoo reported that Wright's plan actually called for securing permission from various state and local agencies to place the homeless in a vacant school, but that he did not express that point in the radio interview.

Wright's comments even reached The Daily Mail in the United Kingdom earlier this week.

But on Wednesday, Wright explained his comments further in his op-ed.

"The point I want to make is that the Japanese have developed ways of living in a densely crowded society. Cities in Japan (an obvious example is Tokyo) have high populations as a result of people desiring and needing to live close to work. Through their imaginativeness and hard work, they have found ways to live, and live well, in these urban centers," Wright wrote.

Wright continued: "My vision is that we can learn from the Japanese how to live in spaces that we Americans might find overly confining. They are one source of inspiration for helping us work with overcoming our homeless situation. Moreover, there are other possible options that we can consider and, hopefully, add to what we already know in improving quality of life in a constrained space."

Wright then addressed the Tiny Home Movement, which he said the U.S. has been exploring for years as a way to house the previously homeless.

"There are other possibilities and ideas yet to be explored. The Japanese lifestyle and Tiny Homes are just two, and yet they can provide a good basis for brainstorming further. The bottom line in discussing this issue is that all of us have the means of providing those who do not have opportunities to improve their lives a good start with a living space they can call their own.

"We just need the political and moral will to act. I would like to help these people and, with your help and goodwill, we can do that and more for them — as they become welcome and important members of our community."

According to Yahoo News, Wright ran for Oregon City mayor in March 2021, but lost to Rachel Lyles Smith.

Smith resigned in April, and McGriff took over as acting mayor until the upcoming election.