As Sunday's Upper House election in Japan nears, and with more than 2 million new 18- and 19-year-old voters, the U.N. youth envoy said he is excited about the potential of Japan's youth as they exercise their right to vote in a national poll for the first time.
"We welcome very much lowering the voting age, but we should not think that we have done our job just by lowering the voting age," Ahmad Alhendawi, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's envoy on youth, said in an interview.
He was referring to a new Japanese law that lowered the minimum voting age from 20 to 18, marking the first such change in over 70 years, when the age was reduced from 25. The new legislation means about 2.4 million 18- and 19-year-old people can exercise their democratic rights in the national election.