THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN JAPAN: JAPAN'S ELECTORAL LAWS Election Campaigns in Practice |
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Gerald L. Curtis :: These election law restrictions create a particular kind of mood to Japanese election campaigns, and have created all kinds of imaginative searching for loopholes in the law so that people can do things that the law ostensibly prohibits. So, in fact, there's a lot that goes on that's not quite legal, but not overtly illegal, in the way of election campaigning, mainly because the law restricts what candidates can do much more than it restricts what parties are permitted to do. So if candidates can claim to be campaigning as a party, rather than as a candidate, they can get away with many things that, in effect, are what candidates consider to be normal in other countries. So one of the problems with the election law in Japan is it helps create an image that somehow what politicians do is not quite legitimate, or not quite legal. And so there is some strong set of arguments made that Japan would be better off with a much less restrictive election law than it has now, but people often point to the United States as an example of how complete freedom in election campaigning can create an excessive use of money for media campaigns, and an excessive emphasis on image rather than substance in trying to get people to come out and vote for one candidate rather than for another. So this is a problem that continues to be one that the Japanese have not yet come to a consensus about as to how to resolve. |
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