Japanese Politics Thread

[Shrillland]

It's not quite as bad as Russia, the LDP rigged the electoral system to favour them with unequal vote distribution and favouring rural seats, but they don't rig elections outright. The biggest enemy is apathy primarily among urban voters. Rural prefectures tend to have turnouts of 55-60%, but the cities are lucky if they get above 40%.

why has the unfairly apportioned seats not been challenged in court?

Well, the Japanese Constitution doesn't really have any provisions such a challenge. In fact, it's pretty bare bones in regards to the Diet's composition in general.

Both chambers are organized by elected members representing the entire population.
(2) The fixed number of members of both Houses is stipulated by law.

And that's it. Ironically, the current system was set up to break LDP dominance in the early 90s, before then it was a straight SNTV PR vote. But the LDP changed the system to allow for districts with smaller populations designed to keep them in power by putting them in more rural areas.

[San Lumen]

why has the unfairly apportioned seats not been challenged in court?

Well, the Japanese Constitution doesn't really have any provisions such a challenge. In fact, it's pretty bare bones in regards to the Diet's composition in general.

Both chambers are organized by elected members representing the entire population.
(2) The fixed number of members of both Houses is stipulated by law.

And that's it. Ironically, the current system was set up to break LDP dominance in the early 90s, before then it was a straight SNTV PR vote. But the LDP changed the system to allow for districts with smaller populations designed to keep them in power by putting them in more rural areas.

Districts therefore don't have to be equal in population and some votes count more than others. I don't see how that's fair or democratic.

[Xiaodong]

Until relatively recently I never really followed Japanese politics, but having done a lot of reading on the subject I'm... frankly aghast.

Regarding their election on Sunday, my opinions are as follows:

1. In terms of raw ideology, it would appear that Komeito is the party most similar to my own views. (In fact I wish western conservative parties were more like them.) However, given that they are propping up the current government, I would be withholding support from them if I were Japanese.

2. The LDP are corrupt in ways that I can barely even comprehend. The fact that one of the candidates who stood when Suga stepped down wanted to outlaw criticism of the government in a nation with already dangerously low levels of press freedom speaks volumes about how they are neither Liberal nor Democratic.

3. Some polls suggest the LDP could lose. I hope and pray that that they do. If I were Japanese my vote would probably be lent to the Constitutional Democratic Party, not necessarily because I support their politics but simply to get rid of the LDP. Hell at this point I'd even consider voting for the Communists over the LDP.

4. The LDP will probably still find a way to win because, as much as I love Japan, it turns out that Japan is a democracy in about the same way that Putin's Russia is a democracy.

Whilst Japanese democracy isn't fantastic to say the least, the LDP are prevented from implementing ultra-authoritarian laws as the constitution and many laws first formulated in the post-war period are incredibly liberal (one reason Japan didn't implement a full lockdown is because they legally can't as it would violate freedom of movement laws). Japan as such cannot be compared to say Russia or even more competitive democracies in the region like South Korea in that regard as parties like the LDP legally cannot implement the authoritarian fuckery their Turkish or Malaysian counterparts say have done (despite the best efforts of Abe and Suga).

[Duvniask]

It's not quite as bad as Russia, the LDP rigged the electoral system to favour them with unequal vote distribution and favouring rural seats, but they don't rig elections outright. The biggest enemy is apathy primarily among urban voters. Rural prefectures tend to have turnouts of 55-60%, but the cities are lucky if they get above 40%.

why has the unfairly apportioned seats not been challenged in court?

It has been challenged by the Supreme Court of Japan. But in typical Japanese fashion, the challenge is toothless. The Supreme Court has multiple times ruled that many (if not all, I don't precisely recall) of the last elections have been in a "state of unconstitutionality", because they were deemed to violate the principle of equality of votes, yet somehow this stopped short of nullifying the result and simply tasked the Diet with correcting disparities (yeah, they've been taking their sweet time doing that).

[Duvniask]

why has the unfairly apportioned seats not been challenged in court?

Well, the Japanese Constitution doesn't really have any provisions such a challenge. In fact, it's pretty bare bones in regards to the Diet's composition in general.

Both chambers are organized by elected members representing the entire population.
(2) The fixed number of members of both Houses is stipulated by law.

And that's it. Ironically, the current system was set up to break LDP dominance in the early 90s, before then it was a straight SNTV PR vote. But the LDP changed the system to allow for districts with smaller populations designed to keep them in power by putting them in more rural areas.

But there is law for it, the Public Offices Election Act, that allows voters to instigate legal action to challenge the validity of elections and protect voting rights as determined by the Constitution of Japan. It's not that there isn't a theoretically possibly way to correct things, the courts just aren't reacting to it in a way we would consider proper.

[Kowani]

Voting has now begun

[Shrillland]

There's still 25 seats uncalled, but the LDP won the majority but lost ground, down to 255. CDP and JCP are down too, with Ishin No Kai gaining most of the lost LDP seats

LDP Secretary Akira Amari loses his seat in Kanagawa Prefecture and resigns from the party leadership

Overall, the LDP mood's pretty glum from what I'm reading.

[Duvniask]

There's still 25 seats uncalled, but the LDP won the majority but lost ground, down to 255. CDP and JCP are down too, with Ishin No Kai gaining most of the lost LDP seats

LDP Secretary Akira Amari loses his seat in Kanagawa Prefecture and resigns from the party leadership

Overall, the LDP mood's pretty glum from what I'm reading.

Looks like opinion polls and seat projections were wrong. Well, expected nothing less than complete foolishness one way or another.

[Rio Cana]

The following contains a breakdown by political party.

First go here - https://www.japantimes.co.jp/election-2 ... e-updates/

Then scroll down to where it says opposition parties and hit where it says "see detailed breakdown".

[Resilient Acceleration]

Seems like the right-wing Ishin is today's big winner, not expecting the majority of NS to be a fan of that. I don't know much about Ishin, but economically I'm fine with their ideology (I don't know much about the social side, though it sounds like they won't be too dissimilar to that of LDP). And I mean they do have the word "innovation" on their name, something seemingly backed by their ideologies. Quite saddened by the comfortable majority though, I feel like the electorate should've punished the LDP more for not picking Kono.

[Kowani]

Yukio Edano has announces intention to resign as leader of the CDP

[Kowani]

Kenta Izumi elected as new leader of the CDP in second round

[Xiaodong]

Kenta Izumi elected as new leader of the CDP in second round

Seems to be a more conservative choice for leader, given Izumi is a former member of Kibo and has endorsed an albeit limited restart of nuclear power. Wonder if he'll keep the alliance with the JCP - it lost the CDPJ independent voters, but meant they won a few tight races like Amari's seat.

I guess also remains to be seen if the opposition will return to constant leadership changes. For all his faults, Edano provided the CDPJ with stability at the top - no guarantee that will continue.

[Port Caverton]

Japan PM vows to strengthen military at int’l naval review