The Japanese archipelago will be deafened by the din of election campaigning for the Lower House for about two weeks beginning today. Given the growing public distrust of politics, however, the ranks of voters who claim no party affiliation are swelling. Political parties have repeatedly embraced unprincipled realignments in pursuit of power, putting policies to the side. Quite a few successful candidates have confounded their supporters by quickly changing their parties after being elected.
It is not that voters are losing interest in politics. According to an NHK poll released June 5, 86 percent of respondents said they will go to the polls. This suggests that voter turnout in the June 25 election might reach an unexpectedly high rate.
The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partners set the election date before July's G8 Kyushu-Okinawa summit in order to get sympathy votes for the late Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, who died an untimely death as a result of overwork. In the NHK poll, however, more than half the respondents said Obuchi's death would not affect their voting decision.