With the Upper House election results now serving as a baseline, it will be interesting to see if what happened in the United States once 18-year-olds were given the right to vote in 1972 has predictive value for future elections in Japan.
Expectations were high in 1976, which was the first nationwide election allowing young people to cast their ballot. Although 18- to 24-year-olds comprised 18 percent of all eligible voters in the U.S. at the time, only 13 percent actually exercised their new right. That was an underrepresentation of one-third.
Analysts said the low turnout was an aberration. But the next election in 1978 refuted that explanation when youth were underrepresented by 50 percent. In 1996, the situation was even worse, when 7 out of 10 young people did not vote in the presidential election.