Search - local-elections

 
 
COMMENTARY / Japan / SENTAKU MAGAZINE
Mar 19, 2015

Aging population, reform taking a toll on LDP

Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party express alarm that the party's local chapters are showing signs of collapse because of Japan's aging population and the government's proposed agricultural reforms.
COMMENTARY
Apr 20, 1999

Last gasp for political parties?

The raison d'etre of established parties is in serious doubt following their serious setbacks in the April 11 local elections. A case in point was Shintaro Ishihara's overwhelming victory in the Tokyo gubernatorial election. Ishihara, a former lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, now running...
EDITORIALS
Mar 26, 2011

Established parties in trouble

Unified local elections will be held in April, although elections in northeastern Japan hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami will be postponed under a special law.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Feb 23, 2010

No one-size-fits-all for foreign suffrage

Support has been surprisingly muted for the Hatoyama administration's push toward suffrage for foreign permanent residents, even among the constituencies such a law would enfranchise. The debate is definitely a hot one, sparking a number of protests against the plan around Tokyo, with opposition logic...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Mar 28, 2003

46 vie for governorships; economy, war emerge as key issues

Forty-six candidates applied Thursday to run in 11 gubernatorial elections April 13 in Tokyo and 10 other prefectures, marking the official start of campaigning that is expected to focus on the economy and support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
EDITORIALS
Oct 16, 2014

A step backward in Indonesia

The old guard in Indonesia may have lost the fight for the presidency in July, but in the late night hours of the last legislative session, they consolidated their control over local and provincial elections by changing the voting procedures.
EDITORIALS
Aug 19, 2014

Higher standards for assemblies

Recent instances of strange or illegal behavior on the part of municipal and prefectural assembly members, including a bawling jag by a Hyogo assemblymen whose hand was caught in the cookie jar, have given many citizens cause to suspect that the overall quality of their local lawmakers is deteriorating.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 28, 2001

Challenges for South Korean democracy

SEOUL -- Nov. 28 was a black day for local autonomy in South Korea. On that date a group of lawmakers introduced a bill in the National Assembly, aimed at abolishing the democratic election of lower-level mayors. The 42 lawmakers from different political parties who presented the bill argued that the...
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 30, 2023

Nippon Ishin’s 'hop, skip and jump' election strategy faces one final leap

The Osaka-based Nippon Ishin faces a long final jump in order to achieve its goal of winning enough seats in the next general election to become Japan’s main opposition force.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Mar 22, 2023

Can Nippon Ishin 'skip' to true national political prominence?

The Osaka-born party faces a make-or-break moment in next month’s series of local elections across the nation.
JAPAN / View from Osaka
Apr 20, 2019

Osaka Ishin's success could have impact on regional politics elsewhere in Japan

History shows cities that flourish due to maritime trade have a reputation for some of the world's most colorful, complex, and corrupt local politics. That includes the port of Osaka, which was trading with China and the Korean Peninsula more than 1,000 years ago.
EDITORIALS
Apr 15, 2003

Party influence continues to wane

With public interest drawn to developments in the ongoing Iraq war, the first round of elections in local governments and assemblies featured low-key campaigning and a generally poor turnout. The media has not shown great interest in hyping up the local poles. And established political parties have tended...
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 23, 2002

Democracy gains a foothold in Cambodia

WASHINGTON -- Official returns have confirmed a broad sweep of Cambodia's ruling party, the Cambodia People's Party, in the country's first local elections. Critics in the U.S. policy community cite these elections as proof that democracy has failed in Cambodia. By their measure, elections are the sole...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Nov 27, 2022

Attention turns to presidential poll after Taiwan ruling party thrashing

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen resigned as DPP chairwoman after the defeat, the worst showing in the party's history, highlighted that its focus on China had backfired with voters.
EDITORIALS
Mar 10, 2019

An opportunity to reduce the gender gap in politics

Upcoming local elections will test whether the parties take the gender gap as a serious issue that needs to be fixed.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 6, 2017

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike defends her party's policy of not granting foreign residents in Japan the right to vote

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike defends her recently launched party's policy of denying foreign residents here the right to vote or run in local elections, stating that such measures are necessary to protect the national interest.
COMMENTARY
Nov 4, 2001

NGOs poised to invigorate Korean politics

SEOUL -- Nongovernmental organizations and local political autonomy have both contributed greatly to the advancement of democracy in South Korea. Both have been instrumental in checking centralized political power, bringing political decision-making closer to the people and increasing the political awareness...
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Mar 22, 2015

Election results in Kansai will weigh on Abe's plans

In Kansai, the outcome of the national unified local elections on April 12 and 26 might change Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's budget and policy priorities.
JAPAN
Mar 22, 2007

Substance, not usual campaign noise

and Yoshito Hori, head of the Globis Group, look on at a March 2 event in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward promoting use of platforms known as manifestos in politics. PHOTO COURTESY OF WASEDA UNIVERSITY
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 31, 2011

China's democratic steps

WASHINGTON — During the state visit to the United States of Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Barack Obama pressed Hu on human rights. He probably should have asked more about spreading democracy in China, because he might have been surprised by what he heard.
JAPAN
Sep 28, 2000

Foreign residents on slow boat to get vote

The Japanese woman was unhappy.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics / LOCAL POLLS '15
Apr 24, 2015

Vanishing communities find themselves facing shortage of leaders

At a glance, the town of Kanna in southern Gunma Prefecture looks like just another beautiful rural community, surrounded by deep mountain forests stretching along the Kanna River, which is touted as having some of the clearest water in the Kanto region.
JAPAN / Politics / KANSAI PERSPECTIVE
Dec 21, 2014

Ishin-DPJ tieup, Kepco's greed to play key roles in April polls

In terms of domestic politics, the recent Lower House election was merely a prelude to next April's nationwide local elections.
EDITORIALS
May 4, 2007

Grassroots autonomy

On May 3, 1947, the day the current Constitution went into effect, the Local Autonomy Law came into force. Local autonomy is an important system that puts into practice the postwar Constitution's basic principle that sovereign power resides with the people. The current Constitution devotes a whole chapter...
JAPAN
Jun 20, 2000

Expat candidates enter the political fray

As campaigning for Sunday's Lower House election heats up, two candidates are lucky to have a guaranteed point of interest — one comes from Finland, the other from China.
JAPAN
Feb 4, 2000

Koreans want governor to push for their rights

Staff writer OSAKA -- A new Osaka governor will be elected today by some 7 million eligible voters in the prefecture, which has a population of 8.83 million. While voter turnout figures show nearly half did not cast ballots in the last three gubernatorial elections, some are unable to vote in local...
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Jan 12, 2023

How India's ruling party is tightening its grip on Kashmir

India's ruling BJP Party hopes to get rewarded at the polls for scrapping policies that denied millions of people in Jammu and Kashmir many of the same rights as other Indians.
A woman shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote at a polling station during the first phase of the assembly election in south Kashmir's town of Bijbehara, India, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 18, 2024

Modi faces new test in Kashmir after bruising election battle

Elections will also take place over the next five months in two opposition-ruled states, Jharkhand and Delhi.
A voter casts a mail-in ballot at a drop box outside the Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department's southeast Mesa office during the Arizona state primary election in Mesa, Arizona, on July 30.
WORLD / Politics
Sep 6, 2024

U.S. election prompts cities to get a grip on fake news

Local officials are increasingly forced to address false information about public health, migration, and urban planning strategies, which intensify during polls.

Longform

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