Search - proportional-representation

 
 
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Jul 9, 2020

Why Singapore’s ruling party easily wins big in every election

If anyone is wondering which party will win Singapore’s election on Friday, just listen to the opposition.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
Oct 2, 2016

Comparing elections in the U.S. and Japan: the good, the bad and the ugly

I love elections. Anywhere. It's fascinating to see how politicians craft public appeals. No matter how flawed the process, it's how nation-states recharge their legitimacy and publicly reaffirm their leaders' mandate to govern.
EDITORIALS
Apr 24, 2016

Insufficient electoral reform

The ruling coalition needs to explain why the nation is still being kept waiting for the fundamental reform needed to correct the gross disparity in vote values.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 24, 2015

Assessing Japan's rightward shift at the top

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is Japan's most ideological postwar prime minister, pushing right-wing policies on numerous fronts that trample on postwar norms and values. He has been able to do so because he has the Diet in his back pocket, but how did this tectonic shift in Japanese politics happen?
EDITORIALS
Mar 29, 2015

Letting popular will prevail

Political parties and lawmakers should not put off trying to resolve the vote-value gap between the nation's electoral districts just because recent high court rulings on the matter have been inconclusive.
EDITORIALS
Sep 18, 2014

Time to bridge the vote-value gap

Time is running for lawmakers to correct the 'unconstitutional' vote-value gap between constituencies for the next triennial election of the Upper House. Discord with the Liberal Democratic Party over the matter doesn't help.
COMMENTARY / World
Jun 2, 2014

EU shock may spur reforms

The political gains made by right-wing parties in the European parliamentary election may prompt centrists to make the positive case for immigration more forcibly as well as reforms in how the EU is governed.
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Feb 25, 2014

Will Constitution survive Abe?

Conservative hawks who are close allies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe express irritation over the failure of the move to amend the Constitution to have gained as much momentum as they had hoped.
EDITORIALS
Jun 27, 2013

Makeshift fix for electoral disparity

Ruling coalition party members in the Lower House ramrod passage of an overdue reapportionment measure that only begins to address vote-value disparities.
EDITORIALS
Jan 7, 2013

Women for decision making

One of the big issues facing Japan is how to improve economic conditions. The situation in which Japanese women find themselves should not be forgotten. Generally women's pay is lower than men's for similar jobs.
EDITORIALS
Nov 22, 2010

Vote disparity condemned

In a lawsuit filed by a group of lawyers, the Tokyo High Court on Nov. 17 ruled that the Upper House election held in July — in which the vote-value disparity between constituencies reached a maximum 5.00 to 1 — was unconstitutional.
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 11, 2004

China takes no chances in Hong Kong poll

HONG KONG -- It is now clear that China is quietly tearing up the fine promises it made in 1984 that Hong Kong would be permitted a high degree of autonomy when China resumed sovereignty over the city after 150 years of British colonial rule. Beijing is going to great lengths to ensure that prodemocracy...
EDITORIALS
Oct 30, 2003

Gearing up for a decisive election

Campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election, the first in the 21st century, officially kicked off Tuesday. The focal question is whether power will switch from the three-way coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party to the enlarged and emboldened Democratic Party of Japan. Put it another way, the...
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2003

'Swing vote' could usher in two-party system for Japan

A brewing political drama could open the way for a two-party system in Japan. Already the ruling and opposition parties are bracing for the Nov. 9 general election in which a transfer of power between two major parties looms as a real possibility for the first time since the end of World War II.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 13, 2003

Britain's far right poses a rising threat

BRUSSELS -- The press in England has had a field day over the past 20 years chronicling the rise of the Continent's far right. The first chance came in the early 1980s with the emergence of France's National Front led by Jean-Marie Le Pen, a man who believes the Americans built the gas chambers in the...
COMMENTARY / World / GUEST FORUM
May 3, 2001

Turn the PM into a man of the people

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is right to suggest amending the Constitution to allow the people to elect the prime minister directly. The government of Japan currently lacks the ability to make quick and firm policy decisions. The Japanese tradition of decision-making by a consensus of powerful individuals...
ENVIRONMENT
Jan 24, 2000

U.S. Greens Abroad get organized for wiser, more principled politics

Once, green was just a color. Now the word evokes numerous shades of fear, anger and optimism, and pops up in discussions of politics, economics, trade and environment.
EDITORIALS
Jul 29, 1999

New Komeito makes an about-face

A tripartite coalition among the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito has become a fait accompli. At a special party convention last weekend, New Komeito adopted a basic policy that prepared the second-largest opposition party for participation in the bipartisan ruling alliance...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 4, 2023

Myanmar junta marks Independence Day with show of force and mass pardons

The junta did not specify whether the amnesty would include those jailed as part of a crackdown on dissent.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 5, 2022

Sense of stagnation clouds Komeito after failed rejuvenation

At 70 years old, Natsuo Yamaguchi, was elected unopposed for an eighth straight term as leader, despite the party's earlier plans to replace him.
The Tokyo district has the highest number of candidates in the 2025 Upper House election with 32 people in the running for seven seats.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 18, 2025

In Upper House race, younger voters in Tokyo turn to DPP for new direction

Many younger voters, especially in the capital, are drawn to the party's idea that the working generation must be supported for the sake of everyone.
Sanseito head Sohei Kamiya makes a stump speech in Tokyo on July 3.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 17, 2025

Sanseito third-most-popular party in Upper House race, poll shows

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party remained the front-runner at 20.9%, albeit down 3.6 points from June.
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Tokyo on Sunday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 21, 2025

47% turn to social media and videos for voting decisions: exit poll

Of those, the largest proportion, at 23.9%, cast proportional representation votes for Sanseito.
Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), speaks to the media in Tokyo on Sunday hours after voting closed for the Upper House election.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jul 21, 2025

CDP shows ‘modest’ outcome as Noda struggles to unite the opposition camp

There is speculation the opposition party might form a coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party and its partner Komeito to form a stable, centrist-oriented government.
Japan’s ruling LDP-Komeito bloc lost big, smaller parties gained ground and the country now faces a more fractured, uncertain political future.
EDITORIALS
Jul 25, 2025

Voter revolt shatters Japan’s ruling coalition and empowers smaller parties

The big winners were smaller, newer parties on the right, Sanseito and the Democratic Party for the People.
Fumitake Fujita, who was elected as Nippon Ishin no Kai's co-leader, speaks at a party meeting Friday in Tokyo.
JAPAN / Politics
Aug 8, 2025

Nippon Ishin picks Fumitake Fujita for co-leader position

A former secretary-general, Fujita replaces Seiji Maehara, who resigned to take responsibility for the party’s underwhelming performance in July’s Upper House election.
Yoshihiko Noda, head of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (center) attends a Lower House session on Aug. 1. The former prime minister has signaled he’s ready to take his conciliatory approach to the government to new heights, hinting that the time for clashes with the Liberal Democratic Party is over.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Aug 20, 2025

CDP softens stance toward LDP in bid to bolster political center

“Right-wing populism has grown too strong,” CDP leader Yoshihiko Noda said. “Unless the center gains more strength, Japanese politics won’t improve.”
Upper House lawmaker Akira Ishii
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 27, 2025

Upper House member's office raided over alleged fraud

Akira Ishii is suspected of receiving public funds by filing a report about hiring a government-paid secretary who never actually worked for him.

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’