Regarding Daniel Krieger's Oct. 10 feature article,"Making noise about keeping the decibels down": The Japan Election Law prohibits door-to-door solicitation/campaigning, which is a tremendously good thing. But this explains why candidates have to resort to patrolling the streets shouting their names to gain recognition.
It's not a very sophisticated political election strategy, because there is nothing intellectual or intelligent about it. It does not involve presentation or debate of any policy ideas. It's only about name recognition. Kind of childish, really.
The Election Law specifically limits campaigning to the hours of 8 in the morning until 8 in the evening.
What bothers me the most is the sight of candidates with bullhorns outside train and subway stations before 8 a.m. soliciting (berating) sleepy voters with their cacophonous howling. They want to be lawmakers, but they start out breaking the law by campaigning before 8 a.m.
Something ought to be done. Newspaper stories should be published. Arrests should be made. The sad reality, though, is that a complaint against, or an arrest of, politicians making illegal early morning campaign noise would simply be met with incomprehension.
This reminds me of the Oct. 29, 2002, article "Annoyed teen punches lawmaker giving speech outside train station," which reported an assault on a 42-year-old Democratic Party of Japan House of Representatives lawmaker — not for political reasons but just because he was noisy and annoying. I have always admired that unnamed teen.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.