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Mobilizing 18- and 19-year-old voters a challenge

11 Comments

“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?

The second factor is the first-time participation of the youngest voters in Japanese history. Eighteen- and 19-year-olds have been given the vote. There are 2.4 million of them. Will they change anything? If so, how? There’s no telling. No Japanese younger than 20 has ever voted before.

Zamamiya, 39, cites a recent NHK survey showing 49% of these new voters feeling “uneasy about voting.” They don’t think they know enough about politics. Zamamiya is reassuring. “Don’t worry,” he says, “most adults don’t know anything either.” It’s more than a laugh line. “How should they know? Japanese schools teach absolutely nothing about elections.”

Never mind; think of the exercise as entertainment and the anxiety vanishes. He cites Mexico and Costa Rica, where (he says) voters are regaled at polling stations by wrestlers and other entertainers imparting a festival atmosphere to the proceedings – and why not? True, choosing a government is a matter of some importance, but if excessive solemnity intimidates voters and discourages them from participating, is democracy served? “Think of your university student council elections,” Zamamiya says. “No one insisted you study policy issues before voting – and did anyone not vote?”

Many Japanese voters who don’t are discouraged by a feeling that there’s no point – that the coalition led by Abe’s Liberal-Democratic Party is bound to win however they mark their ballots. One problem enfeebling the opposition has been its split into numerous small parties. In the 2014 Lower House elections, Zamamiya reminds us, the LDP garnered 49% of the votes against the opposition’s 45%. That’s pretty close, and yet the LDP-led coalition ended up with a two-thirds Lower House majority. He cites France, where in last year’s regional elections the ultra-right National Front (FN) seemed headed for overwhelming victory, until the opposition united and scotched the threat.

Might Japan do the same? Zamamiya notes with approval that opposition parties here seemed to have learned the lesson, five opposition parties having agreed to unite their efforts this summer in the smaller electoral districts.

Politics should be of deep concern to young adults, even if standard Japanese education discourages interest. It is, after all, their future that’s at stake. What kind of Constitution will they be living under? What rights will it guarantee and what rights will it annul? Will the pension fund survive to underpin the society in which they’ll be working and raising families? Will nuclear power prevail, or give way to safer and cleaner energy?

“I myself,” Zamamiya admits, “was 34 when I voted for the first time.” The impetus was the sudden realization that if the young don’t vote, the elderly – who do, in far greater numbers – in effect rule, which may be good for them, but is it good for society as a whole? It’s something for young people to think about.

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11 Comments
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The rule they learn is leave the responsibility to someone else until you think it can no longer be avoided or until you can benefit yourself and don't have to suffer social consequences for being self-centred. Otherwise all action is considered some kind of duty, which, of course, is based on fear, hence the uneasiness.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Offer some super rare tsumtsum or similar types capsule characters from popular games at voting booths that can't be got anywhere else or bought, you'll get them voting in their droves. Or a chance for a golden handshake ticket for a random registered voter, die hard AKB fans will throw themselves at the chance of that.

But all we get is the same old dinosaurs on their speak boxes outside stations or driving around making noise. Everyone is plugged into their phones, nobody is listening.

But keeping the status quo is what fits the government.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Mobilizing 18- and 19-year-old voters a challenge

Let us foreigners vote. We'll mobilize.

They'd do ALOT better with foreign turnout seeing as how we pay the same taxes.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I can hear it now. The theme song for millennials: KMFDM's "Apathy"

2 ( +2 / -0 )

When the young tax paying citizen of Japan starts to receive less and less net salary then they won't want to go to work for long hours on a crowded train or bus where they'll never get a seat.-what will happen then?

The 1960s showed that Japanese will lobby violently for wage increases, I am betting that there'll do the same when they need to preserve their standard of living

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Best of luck. I don't know how much or what Japan teaches about political science in their social studies classes, but that is where it should be targeted. But from what I've heard the classes they teach really suck and can't really catch student's attention.

While I wasn't the greatest student in school, I've got broad interests developed from school including politics, and political science.

I guess if the "cutesy cutesy, Happy happy" method of developing interest in politics helps then I guess they'll have to go with that.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The impetus was the sudden realization that if the young don’t vote, the elderly – who do, in far greater numbers – in effect rule, which may be good for them, but is it good for society as a whole? It’s something for young people to think about.

Unfortunately, the elderly far outnumber the young, so this situation isn't going to change. That's why all the J politicians are old guys. You will never get a female or a young politician like Justin Trudeau. The demographics won't let that happen.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The 1960s showed that Japanese will lobby violently for wage increases, I am betting that there'll do the same when they need to preserve their standard of living

Mind you, that generation was not work-shy or stuck with their faces in their mobile phone games. I really doubt we'd see any of that spark from this generation.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Don’t worry,” he says, “most adults don’t know anything either.” It’s more than a laugh line.

Laughing from embarrassment as this is the truth when it comes to politics.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

OK. I like this Kuchikomi. I'm learning to enjoy it maybe. There's a giggle here.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

“Elections are exciting!” proclaims “election visualist” Garei Zamamiya in an interview with Weekly Playboy (June 20).

Infinite scope for cheeky puns.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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