Election and Election News Coverage in Japan
There are some big differences between how elections work in Japan compared to the U.S. Because Japan uses a British-style Parliamentary system, the elections aren't held as regularly as they are in the States, and you never know when the Prime Minister will disband the government and throw us all into Election Hell, with candidates riding around in loudspeaker cars thanking everyone loudly for their support. Election advertising is usually limited to posters showing the candidate wearing a smart suit with his name in large kanji characters, and negative advertising and campaigning is strictly forbidden. There are two types of election news coverage in Japan: reporting done by NHK, Japan's version of the BBC, which by law must be neutral on all issues; and traditional masukomi (from "mass communications") outlets like Fuji or TBS. While the press in Japan seems well balanced when covering politics -- for example, even minor parties are given ample time to present their views on popular political talk shows, no matter how small their representation -- you can always count on Asahi Shimbun-affiliated TV Asahi to give the ruling Liberal Democratic Party a hard time because of their long history of opposition. Also, the news media is always careful to tip-toe around any issue involving the New Komeito, Japan's third-largest political party and part of the current ruling coalition, since many famous singers and actors are members of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist religion, which is completely unaffiliated (wink wink) with the New Komeito party (wink wink).
Here are the official Election Poster Places you see around town. You also see plenty of these posters in people's homes, where they're no doubt pressed into displaying them as a form of Japanese giri. But you don't see Hitler moustaches, one politician choosing unflattering images of his opponent for negative advertising, or anything. It's all about positive issues, slogans (sometimes in English), and gambarimasu (Japanese for "I will do my best for you").
posted by Peter in Japan at 7:33 PM
3 Comments:
So how is the election going for you so far? I get so depressed at what a dirty, unreasonable fight it is (in the U.S. of course), with the end result being people with IQ's far below average deciding our future. Or so it seems now.
11:27 PM
Eh, it's dragging on and on. It's only my second election, so I am not really one to compare it to prior elections. But one benefit of this election is that I think many people are more involved with the process than the last election. I have friends who didn't vote last time around actually talking about politics and their desire to improve things, so from my point of view, some of the apathy is gone. I just hope that a the Democrats settle on a nominee and the real debates can begin.
Anyway, I have a question. I see quite a few women on the posters. Are there many woman who get elected into office? Also, Also, in the US, we have Barack Obama, who I've heard on NPR is quite popular in many European nations. What do they think of him in Japan?
9:02 AM
Around here, out of 12 candidates about 3-4 will be female, so yes, they are involved. Not sure how many are getting elected, but there are a lot, like the group of young female politicians recruited by former PM Koizumi to kick out some old men he wanted ejected from the party. They're known collectively as "Koizumi Children."
Not to get too political, but seen from the outside, the last eight years has been a train wreck, and virtually the entire world is shocked at all that's happened, and how the "9/11 goodwill" could have been wasted so totally. (I remember hearing Tony Blair on the radio talking about "Our friends, the Americans" after 9/11 and breaking into tears.) So the candidates that's as different from the way things have been up til now is likely to be the one they'll support. That seems to be Obama, although Hillary had that "we know you, therefore we support you" thing going for a long time. Plus, there's a town in Japan called Obama ^_^
7:41 PM
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