Written by: Muhammad Rayhansyah Jasin
Edited by: Mudra Srinivasan
Amid all the fuzz and updates about last month’s election, another crucial issue is floating in the air; do young people in Japan vote? Apart from the political turmoil between the ruling coalition and the unified opposition, Japan’s politics seem to be dominated with whatever the politicians want to characterize through the media. In this article, we try to break down how Japan’s youth perceive politics and elections.
Background
According to Japan Times, last Sunday’s election only brought 56% of eligible voters to cast their ballots, third lowest since World War II. The last election cycle in 2017 was even lower with 53.68% going to the voting booth. The lowest of them all was in 2014, a mere 52.66%. This is even lower compared to flawed democracies like Hungary (69.68%), Slovakia (59.82%), or even Indonesia with 81% during the 2019 Presidential election.
Less than 34% of voters aged 20s voted in the 2017 Lower House Election. The Mainichi reported that voter turnout among people under 20 stood only at 31.33% during the 2017 Upper House Election. Nikkei Asia wrote that the decreasing trend of voter turnout among the youth has been observed since 2009, and last October’s election was no different. APU Times has discussed this matter with Professor Yuichi Kondo and Professor Yufu Iguchi along with five domestic students to further understand the situation.
Education about Politics
Japan Times reported that the country lowered its voting age eligibility from 20 to 18 to “encourage civic participation” among its youth through a referendum in 2018 accompanied by the rule of lowering the age of adulthood to 18 by April 2022. Nonetheless, there has been insufficient conversation surrounding politics via formal education as what Professor Kondo and Iguchi mentioned below.
“Election is something that we learn as a system to be ‘memorized’ for an exam, not for our own life,” said Professor Kondo. He believes that democracy requires the public to make informed decisions, yet in Japan, students are not trained to do so. Drastic system reform and teacher training are needed.
“I sometimes wonder why the Japanese school system was not reformed even though we turned to a democracy over 75 years ago,” Professor Kondo added.
Furthermore, Professor Iguchi stated that there’s no substantial education about elections. “The Japanese Ministry of Education almost bans students from discussing political issues in their schools under the notion of political neutrality,” she said. School teachers are only allowed to teach election systems in Japan without any comparison to other nation’s election systems. “The Japanese government and society try to avoid being political,” said Professor Iguchi.
Thoughts on Youth’s Participation in Politics
We collected testimonies from APU students as an example of youth’s thoughts on politics. Kazuma Kawashi, a 2nd year student from Hokkaido thinks that there is low interest in politics by young people, much less to run for political offices. “I feel that the youth lack the knowledge and information needed to choose the right candidate for the job, I don’t know how it will turn out in the future,” said Kazuma.
Haruto Yamazaki, a 2nd year student from Fukuoka, stressed that the youth’s low political participation is a huge problem Japan has been dealing with for a while now. “A lot of people around my age don’t go voting, they don’t understand the current political situation or don’t know their local representatives, and have no idea about the future of politics,” said Haruto.
These thoughts are also shared by Momoka Kaneda, also a 2nd-year student from Fukuoka, and Takumi Tono, a 3rd-year student from Hyogo. Momoka Kaneda feels that there might be a slight increase in interest in politics, yet she believes it’s not enough. Takumi even believes that Japan’s election system does not benefit the people. “We cannot decide who the Prime Minister would be, all decided by the political parties, might as well say that our votes don’t matter,” expressed Takumi.
Sense of ‘Powerlessness’ Among Japanese Youth
A new discourse has emerged among young adults about the indirect election system in Japan. Some of them believe that there is no point in having elections if they cannot elect the Prime Minister themselves.
“I sense the powerlessness of our vote too,” said Professor Kondo. “But the point of an election is that our vote can change the ruling party or at least significantly influence the ruling party’s policies and their practices.”
Professor Kondo iterates that there could be no two heads of state (the emperor along with a directly elected head of state like the President) due to the country’s constitutional monarchy system[KY2]. He believes that any outright movement to change the system would be undemocratic and counter-productive, but there should be an open discussion about the system and more education about the constitutional monarchy system for young people.
The discourse of ‘voting does not change everything’ is also shared by Professor Iguchi. “Actually, this discourse benefits the government and the ruling party because less people vote which means less accountability the government will have to take,” said Professor Iguchi. “That’s why if we want a significant change in the government policies, a unified participation is needed during elections.”
Kazuma also shared his feelings about this matter, stating that it might be difficult to accommodate all opinions, yet through elections, the people could have the collective voice to change the future of Japan.
Political Campaigns
As Japan approaches the election day, posters, advertisements boards, and flyers showing all the candidate’s photos and names are put up in the public vicinity. Election cars are also rallying around neighbourhoods, chanting the candidate names and mandates. In some areas, these cars caused some complaints notably for their “loud but not so clear” sound, as Japan Times reported. The discomfort is also shared by some Beppu residents, “It doesn’t really relay the right message and it disturbs my sleep too,” said an APU student raising concern about it.
APU has also participated in spreading the word by setting up announcement boards about election day. Both Professor Kondo and Iguchi appreciate this effort, “It was a good move by APU, and I strongly commend that initiative,” added Professor Kondo.
However, Professor Iguchi realized that just setting up an announcement board is not enough to encourage students to participate in voting. Professor Kondo also worries that not many students would even bother to look at the boards, much less read the information. “If APU is striving for democracy as our motto reads, APU could do more to boost student’s political participation by having an assembly at AP House or on Zoom facilitated by students and faculty members and creating special sessions or classes on the topic of election and democracy,” said Professor Kondo. Although, he also believes that there should be a neutral discussion and avoid hidden rallies to support certain candidates by everyone.
Professor Kondo argues that as a place to educate students to become active citizens, universities, including APU, should integrate social issues like democracy and election in the campus discourse.
Hopes for the Future Government
The Japanese Constitution provides more control for the government to act more in times of crisis. However, the handling of the COVID pandemic was initially slow and questionable with some foreign publications pointing the finger at the Constitution. Yet, Japan Times defended that it is because of political reasons rather than legal ones that fear of the government becomes prominent again.
“I was tempted to expect a more authoritarian government to handle this pandemic, but I still prefer a democratic one where the people are held to the highest power., although things need to be improved,” said Professor Kondo. Professor Iguchi added that the Japanese government should implement policies based on science, research and be more transparent.
Many opinions came up when we asked students what type of government would be best to lead Japan. Kazuma said that the defense budget should be a top priority due to the increasing trends of threats. Momoka expressed her hopes for a lower consumption tax to help stimulate the economy. Takumi and Haruto agreed that the government should listen to people more and be flexible in dealing with the constant change of the world.
Youth’s Political Participation in the Future
APU Times contacted Kohei Sato, a Japanese student who grew up in Canada and has recently come back to APU. Talking about politics, Kohei said that in Canada, young people have a larger interest in elections. The cultural differences might be a reason for this issue.
“In Canada, when people don’t like a leader, young people will unite to form a group and spread the words to replace this leader in the upcoming election. It’s natural for Canadians to wait for election because they want to assess the leader’s works,” said Kohei explaining the situation.
“While in Japan, I don’t think youth have interest in politics because most of them think that their vote will not change,” said Kohei. “Though I do believe that this act of negligence is not helpful since voting is the only way to make your voice be heard and reflected in policy-making; this is the only act of formal complaint.”
Kohei believes that the youth in Canada are more influenced by liberal ideology thus, making them more opinionated. While young people in Japan are more reserved.
It is urgent for the Japanese youth to start perceiving politics as a tool to fix problems in the county and elections as the most useful way to voice our opinions. “Have a proper debate with your friends about elections and think intelligently if it is [KY3] necessary to vote or not. But I want to tell you that we have the right to vote, that we decide who gets our vote, that[KY4] our vote matters even if you don’t see it in front of your eyes,” said Professor Kondo.
Kazuma, Momoka, Kohei, Takumi, and Haruto agreed that voting is important, and it could make a difference, although small, gradually it would change society.
Professor Iguchi also remarks on the importance of understanding and knowing that the right to vote is solemn and essential for a democracy to run, with her final remarks being:
“Go vote!”
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