Japan: Election campaign kicks off, voting age lowered to 18 | The Washington Post

Japan’s parliamentary election campaign kicked off Wednesday as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party seeks a mandate for his economic policies amid opposition criticism that the lives of the ordinary people are not improving. As more than 380 candidates took to the streets across the nation, pleading for votes from vans outside train stations and shopping arcades, Abe opened the campaign with a pledge to proceed with his “Abenomics” plan to revive the economy and pull the country out of a slump. “The biggest topic of this election is economic policies,” Abe told a crowd in Kumamoto, a southern city struck by deadly earthquakes in April. “This is an election in which we decide whether to return to that dark doldrums or not.” Up for grabs in the July 10 vote are 121 seats, or half of the seats in Parliament’s less powerful upper house.

Japan: Revised election law lowering voting age in Japan to 18 takes effect | Japan Today

A revised election law lowering the minimum age to vote in Japan to 18 from 20 took effect Sunday, in a change that will be applied to the upcoming House of Councillors election. The change means approximately 2.4 million new voters aged 18 and 19 joined the electorate in a reform to better reflect young people’s opinions in politics. There were about 104.2 million voters as of the last national poll—a House of Representatives election in December 2014. Amendments to the Public Offices Election Law changed the voting age for the first time in 70 years, or since 1946 when the minimum voting age was lowered to 20 from 25. People who will be 18 by July 11, the day after the July 10 upper house election, will be able to vote in that poll

Japan: Mobilizing 18- and 19-year-old voters a challenge | Japan Today

“Elections are exciting!” proclaims “election visualist” Garei Zamamiya in an interview with Weekly Playboy (June 20). A lot of people will be surprised to hear that. If Japanese election campaigns were as exciting as they are noisy, it would be a different story, but everyone knows they’re not, with debate dumbed down to imbecility and outcomes largely foregone conclusions. Zamamiya may have a point, however, with reference to the Upper House election slated for July 10. Two factors set it apart. One is a question of some urgency: Will the governing coalition led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe procure a two-thirds majority enabling it to revise the Constitution?

Japan: Age 18: 2.4 million new voters / Teachers worry about staying neutral on politics | The Japan News

“How should we respond if students ask us what we think of today’s political parties?” In late March, a Tokyo high school principal posed this question to members of the government’s Education Rebuilding Implementation Council, who were visiting the school to observe a mock election being held there. A senior official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry who was accompanying the visitors advised, “Avoid saying, ‘I think that …. ’” With the voting age soon to be lowered to 18, teachers are worried about how to deal with political neutrality. The Fundamental Law of Education stipulates that “[Schools] must not carry out political education or other political activities in support of, or in opposition to, a particular political party.”

Japan: Opposition party’s new name seen as risk ahead of election | Japan Today

A new name unveiled by Japan’s main opposition party and a smaller group with which it is set to merge has come under fire, as analysts warn the the rebranding could more harm than good just months away from a national election. Leaders of the two parties announced the new name, Minshinto – provisionally translated as Democratic Innovation Party (DIP) – on Monday based on surveys asking voters to choose between two options. The bigger Democratic Party of Japan will thus abandon a label under which it has battled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party for two decades, but which for many voters is associated with a 2009-2012 DPJ reign marked by policy flipflops and missteps.

Japan: Abe wants electoral reform reflected in next lower house election | Japan Today

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday it is desirable that the next House of Representatives election be held after implementing proposed electoral system reform aimed at addressing vote weight disparities between constituencies in urban and rural areas. “It is important that such reform be reflected firmly when the next election is held,” Abe said at the lower house Budget Committee. Abe made the comment amid speculation that he may dissolve the lower house for a snap general election to coincide with a House of Councillors election this summer in what would be a “double election.” However, the premier has not ruled out the possibility of dissolving the lower chamber before the proposed reform takes effect.

Japan: Lower House passes bill to preserve voting rights for new electors | The Japan Times

The Lower House on Thursday passed a bill to enable people aged 18 or 19 to vote in the upcoming Upper House election even if they change their address shortly before the ballot. While the country is set to lower its voting age to 18 from 20 on June 19, some 70,000 of the 2.4 million new voters were expected to become ineligible to vote as the current election system shuts out those who change their address less than three months before the election.

Japan: Government to take innovative steps to get out the vote for summer elections | The Asahi Shimbun

The government is going all-out to increase voter turnout for this summer’s Upper House election, and is even considering setting up polling stations at shopping centers or other retail outlets in front of major train stations. Under the Public Offices Election Law, just one polling booth is set up in each neighborhood. Normally, elementary schools serve as polling locations. Given that elections are usually held on Sundays in Japan, setting up polling booths at shopping centers would allow people to cast their votes in-between weekend shopping. According to the internal affairs ministry, which is in charge of elections, the joint polling booths would be set up in addition to the normal polling stations. All polling stations would be connected online to prevent individuals from voting more than once.

Japan: Administration looks to let people vote in major train stations, other high-traffic locations | The Japan Times

Hoping to raise voter turnout, the Abe administration plans to allow people to cast their ballots at major train stations and commercial complexes, according to a government source. The administration will try to get the necessary change to the public offices election law by the end of March so it will be in effect for the Upper House election this summer, the source said Monday. People are currently allowed to vote at only one place, usually a school or public office in the neighborhood where they live, designated by the election council. The bill would permit setting up “common voting stations” in high-traffic places, such as train and subway stations, shopping centers and other public facilities, in addition to current polling stations.

Japan: Changing residence registries seen as key for young voter turnout in Japan | The Japan Times

Getting youngsters to vote in next year’s Upper House election may mean coaxing them to be more independent-minded once they leave the nest. And with Japan welcoming 18- and 19-year-olds at ballot boxes next summer, the government is targeting high school students who leave home for university or other reasons to transfer their residence registries, so that they are able to vote in elections. “We want people to vote in the first election held after they turn 18 — and continue to vote in the future,” a senior Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry official said. “Relocating the registry to their current address is the first step.” Japanese citizens are given ballots by municipalities based on their resident registry, and the country’s basic resident register law requires people to transfer their registry when they move.

Japan: Voting Age Lowered to 18 Amid ‘Silver’ Surge at the Polls | Bloomberg

Japan’s upper house approved a bill lowering the voting age to 18 from 20 on Wednesday, a move unlikely to lessen the dominance of the “silver” vote in one of Asia’s most-rapidly aging countries. The change will add about 2.4 million people to the almost 104 million who were eligible to vote in the December general election. The new law is likely to take effect in time for an upper house election scheduled for 2016. The views of younger Japanese are barely reflected in politics, as they are increasingly outnumbered by the swelling ranks of their elders and because they are less likely to vote. Nonetheless, both the main ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the biggest opposition group, the Democratic Party of Japan, backed today’s change in the hope of gaining more support from new voters.

Japan: Government scrambles to help young voters-to-be navigate elections law minefield | The Mainichi

Eighteen-year-olds will likely soon be able to vote and participate in political activities in Japan, but this may have some young people wondering: If it’s legal for an 18-year-old to go out campaigning, is it legal for that person’s 17-year-old friend to join them? Amendments to the Public Offices Election Act lowering the voting age to 18 are expected to pass the Diet on June 17, in time to allow some high school students to vote in next summer’s House of Councillors election. As such, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology are scrambling to develop educational materials for these soon-to-be voters. The materials won’t cover just the basics of the electoral process and casting ballots, but also provide concrete examples of and warnings against elections law violations.

Japan: Some Japanese teens welcome move to reduce voting age, others apathetic | The Japan Times

For high school student Aine Suzuki, the Lower House’s move on Thursday to pass legislation that would reduce the voting age to 18 from the current 20 was akin to a dream come true. The 16-year-old says she has always yearned for the right to vote — so much so that whenever an election is approaching she scours newspapers and TV shows to decide which candidate she would vote for, were she eligible to do so. In only two years — Suzuki said with excitement — her opinion will count at the ballot box. “I hope the lowered voting age will encourage more young people to pay attention to politics and make efforts to get their messages across. Only then can Japan turn into a real democracy,” said Suzuki, who is the youngest member of a pro-democracy youth group called Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs).

Japan: Right-wing candidate’s nude campaign poster skirts election law | The Japan Times

Campaigning for Sunday’s second wave of quadrennial unified local elections has highlighted a legal loophole that allows candidates to go to extremes — including nudity — to gain votes. In contrast with the ubiquitous portrait shots preferred by most candidates, the campaign poster for Teruki Goto, an independent running for the Chiyoda Ward Assembly in Tokyo, went viral after it showed him posing nude against a Rising Sun flag motif while raising a katana over the Imperial Seal, his genitals covered by his name.

Japan: Detecting electoral fraud in Japan | East Asia Forum

It may seem fairly obvious, but only those people who fulfil particular requirements are given voting rights in an election. In Japan, voters must be Japanese citizens aged 20 or over and have a registered address in a municipality within a relevant electoral district for more than three months. According to the Public Offices Elections Law, exploiting this requirement by moving one’s residential registration to another municipality — just on paper — for the purpose of voting, while continuing to reside in an original municipality, is illegal. But this kind of electoral fraud is a prevalent and deeply rooted problem in the Japanese electoral process.

Japan: Major parties submit bill to lower voting age to 18 next year | The Japan Times

The nation’s top political parties have submitted a bill to amend the electoral law to lower the voting age for national elections to 18 from 20. Six parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition and the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition force, submitted the bill Thursday for passage during the current Diet session, which runs through June 24. If the bill passes, 18- and 19-year-olds will get their first chance to vote in next year’s Upper House election, unless the Lower House is dissolved before then. Some 2.4 million people aged 18 and 19 are expected to become voters next year if the proposal becomes law.

Japan: Bill To Lower Voting Age Submitted to Parliament | Wall Street Journal

Japan looks set to lower its voting age for the first time in seven decades after a bill to give 18-year-olds the right to vote was submitted to parliament Thursday. Endorsed across party lines, the planned change would be the first since 1945, when the voting age was lowered to 20 from 25 and women were given the right to vote. The revision, which is expected to pass during the current session and take effect for upper-house elections in the summer of 2016, will add around 2.4 million potential voters in an electorate of 104 million.

Japan: Move to lower voting age from 20 to 18 now a done deal | The Asahi Shimbun

The voting age in Japan is set to be lowered from 20 to 18 in the current Diet session, the first such revision to the election law in 70 years. The two ruling coalition parties and four opposition entities agreed to the measure Feb. 6. As all six parties occupy a majority in the Diet, it is certain to be passed. The policy change will almost certainly be first applied to the next Upper House election, scheduled to be held in summer 2016. The voting age was last lowered in 1945, from 25 to 20. Officials noted that the change will bring Japan into the international norm. According to the National Diet Library, people aged 18 or older have voting rights in about 90 percent of approximately 190 countries or regions in the world whose data is available. In some countries, the voting age is as low as 16.

Japan: Abe coalition secures big Japan election win with record low turnout | Reuters

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, brushing aside suggestions that a low turnout tarnished his coalition’s election win, vowed on Monday to stick to his reflationary economic policies, tackle painful structural reforms and pursue his muscular security stance. But doubts persist as to whether Abe, who now has a shot to become a rare long-lasting leader in Japan, can engineer sustainable growth with his “Abenomics” recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, government spending and promises of deregulation. “We heard the voice of the people saying ‘Move forward with Abenomics’,” Abe told a news conference at his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters, adorned with giant posters of the premier and his campaign slogan “This is the only path”. …  Many voters, doubtful of both the premier’s “Abenomics” strategy to end deflation and generate growth and the opposition’s ability to do any better, stayed at home.

Japan: Shinzo Abe and the Japanese election | The Guardian

Japan goes to the polls on Sunday after the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, called a snap election he hopes will give his Liberal Democratic party (LDP) a greater mandate for economic reforms. The election caught almost everyone by surprise, not least voters and the opposition parties. Surveys show that most people question the need to go to the polls again, just two years after Abe and the LDP were elected by a landslide. They have good reason to be skeptical. The LDP, along with its much smaller junior coalition partner, Komeito, now controls both houses of parliament, ending the legislative deadlock that frustrated previous administrations. After a decade that saw leaders come and go in quick succession, Abe has managed to close the revolving door to the prime minister’s office and secure some semblance of stability. That said, the resignations of two cabinet ministers in September were uncomfortable reminders of his first term as leader – for a year from autumn 2006 – when he was forced out following a string of scandals involving senior colleagues.

Japan: Animated Communists Back in Action for Election Campaign | Wall Street Journal

The Japanese Communist Party is gearing up for what could be its biggest election win in more than a decade with more of the same: cartoons, puns and breakdancing. The 92-year-old party has revived a rowdy bunch of animated mascots–the Proliferation Bureau–to spread the gospel ahead of Sunday’s lower house election. This year, armed with a bigger budget, they’re out to stop Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from letting the sales tax rise again, restarting nuclear reactors and revising the nation’s constitution. The Proliferation Bureau debuted during the 2013 upper house election after restrictions on Internet campaigning were lifted for the first time. The eight characters were meant to appeal to net-savvy youth who might otherwise associate Communism with bloody revolutions. “This time the theme is us against the Liberal Democratic Party,” Kazushi Tamura, deputy head of the publicity department, told JRT, referring to Mr. Abe’s ruling party. The party wasn’t sure the Proliferation Bureau would return after the last election, but positive feedback on social media made the difference, he said.

Japan: Electoral dysfunction leaves Japan’s voters feeling impotent | The Japan Times

What starts with a tingle of excitement, is followed by a surge of activity, frantic yelling and empty promises, but is quickly spent, leaving you feeling just as empty and unfulfilled as before? Answer: a Japanese election. While it took some Americans well into the second term of President Barack Obama’s “change you can believe in” presidency to realize that voting may be a waste of time, decades of rule by an unchanging coven of bureaucrats and Liberal Democratic Party parliamentarians have given the Japanese more time to become accustomed to the impotence of their own democratic processes. Still, you would be hard-pressed to identify a more flaccid poll than the one that will reach a predictable climax on Sunday. Unleashed abruptly after some desultory denials-as-foreplay, the Nov. 21 dissolution of the Diet was so sudden that it will apparently disenfranchise the crews of long-distance Japanese fishing boats that had already left port when faxable ballots were made available. Of course, even if they had received them, how could the nation’s piscators know how to vote, out there on the empty sea with nary a candidate driving by in a sound truck screaming their name and party affiliation?

Japan: Media Under New Pressure Ahead of Election | Wall Street Journal

Just days after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would call a snap election, his ruling Liberal Democratic Party sent a letter to Japan’s five major television networks asking for fair and impartial coverage of the coming campaign. Signed by a top aide to Mr. Abe and another party official, the letter made specific requests: balance in the number of appearances and total airtime given to candidates, for example, and in the political views offered through man-on-the-street interviews. Sent late last month, the letter was the latest example of the tense relationship between Mr. Abe’s conservative government and the Japanese media, particularly left-leaning newspapers and networks.

Japan: Parties begin to seek votes online | The Japan News

A ban on using the Internet in election campaigns has been lifted ahead of the Dec. 14 lower house election, following the upper house election held in summer last year. Each party is participating in the cybercampaign in their own way to attract the attention of voters. The Liberal Democratic Party has made a dedicated website. Linked with Twitter and Facebook accounts of its candidates, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the website is constantly sharing information from candidates on the campaign trail. On Tuesday, the website presented a photo of the prime minister as he visited the area affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake to make a speech supporting another candidate. Komeito has made a website focusing on the party’s most important pledge — introducing a reduced consumption tax rate system for daily necessities and other items when the tax increase to 10 percent is put in place. Their site highlights the importance of the introduction, with an animation and charts. Page views had exceeded 60,000 as of Tuesday, according to the website, which sports the catchphrase “You can understand in one minute.”

Japan: Lower House Dissolved for Snap Election | Associated Press

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the lower house of Japan’s parliament Friday, forcing a snap election in an apparent bid to shore up support for his scandal-plagued government so that he can pursue his policy goals. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been in power for most of the post-World War II era, may lose some seats but is likely to retain a solid majority with its coalition partner in the 480-seat lower house. The election, expected on Dec. 14, follows Abe’s decision to postpone a planned sales tax increase after figures released Monday showed the economy slipped into recession. He is portraying the election as a referendum on his economic revitalization policies, known as Abenomics, and the postponement of the tax hike ? from the current 8 percent to 10 percent ? that had been set for next October. “The battle is now starting,” he said. “We’ll make an all-out fight in this battle so that we all can come back here to resume our responsibility to make Japan a country that shines in the center of the world.”

Japan: Debate on foreigner voting rights reignites ahead of 2020 Olympics | The Japan Times

The recurring debate over how much of a say non-Japanese residents should have in the country’s political process is flaring up once again, amid Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to attract more foreign workers to the country’s shores ahead of the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020. In the latest controversial move, Abe’s Cabinet discouraged local governments from passing an ordinance that would give non-Japanese residents a right to vote in municipal referendums. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party had previously distributed a brochure in 2011 urging its local chapters not to pass such an ordinance, after party members became alarmed at the increasing number of municipalities across the country that had introduced — on a permanent basis — non-Japanese-inclusive polling systems as a means of reflecting the public will. The LDP said it had advised its prefectural chapters in June once again to abide by that earlier recommendation.

Japan: Electronic voting hindered by breakdowns, cost | The Japan News

Electronic voting has failed to be widely adopted by municipalities in Japan, reflecting concern over voting device breakdowns and high costs for system development and maintenance. Only three municipalities—Kyoto; Niimi, Okayama Prefecture; and Rokunohe, Aomori Prefecture—are carrying out electronic voting based on ordinances. There is little momentum for expanding the use of electronic voting to national elections. The law for electronic voting was put into force in February 2002 with the aim of speeding up vote counting. Voters cast ballots by operating touch screens and other electronic devices at polling stations.

Japan: Revised national referendum law lowering voting age to 18 takes effect | The Japan Times

A revised national referendum law that lowers the minimum voting age to 18 from the current 20 took effect Friday. The law, enacted by parliament a week ago, is seen as a crucial part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to amend the pacifist Constitution to enable Japan to play a greater security role. Changes to the Constitution can be initiated with the support of at least two-thirds of the lawmakers in both houses of parliament and must be endorsed by a majority of voters in a referendum.

Japan: Snow Hits Tokyo Election Turnout | Wall Street Journal

A day after a record snowfall in Japan’s capital, Tokyoites took to the heavily frosted streets to cast their ballots for a new governor. Inevitably, the heaviest snow in two decades — according to the weather agency — was affecting voter turnout. As of 11 a.m. (0200 GMT) Sunday, turnout at 1,869 polling stations was an estimated 4.10%, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Electoral Management Committee. That was around 7 percentage points lower than at the same time during the previous gubernatorial election, in December 2012. “Turnout is quite low; it’s because of the snow,” said an official with the committee.

Japan: Twitter Star Seeks Tokyo Votes | Wall Street Journal

Kazuma Ieiri’s campaign trail began with a tweet. “I will run for the Tokyo governor election if this tweet gets retweeted 1,000 times,” the 35-year-old star entrepreneur posted on his Twitter account in December. It took only 30 minutes for him to gather enough support. Many celebrities, including famous entrepreneur Takafumi Horie, joined in. Mr. Ieiri, one of the youngest Tokyo governor candidates ever, hadn’t been involved in politics before his December tweet, but he’s drawn a following online over the years, especially after he became the youngest manager to list his company on JASDAQ when he was 29. While running several internet-service companies and restaurants, Mr. Ieiri has also been active on Twitter, occasionally asking his followers to donate money to various causes. Most recently, he helped a mother to raise the cost of a delivery through twitter — “cloud birthing funding,” he called it.