It is hoped that lowering Japan's minimum voting age for elections from 20 to 18 — as the Diet now seems certain to approve in time for the Upper House election next year — will encourage political participation by more youths just as Japan ...
Survival of 'freedom, democracy'
From top to bottom, Japanese society seems to be growing more introverted and to be shedding its openness toward the outside world. Can the ideal of "freedom and democracy" survive this trend?
A realistic agenda for voters to prevent the worst results
One wonders if the Japanese are realistic enough to vote against political parties and candidates in order to prevent the worst results even if they don't see candidates of their choice.
The political landscape emerging from the Dec. 14 Lower House election will impact when or whether a revision to Japan's Constitution becomes a major agenda item.
A major battle appears to be brewing between the office of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Finance Ministry — the most powerful bureaucracy in Japan — over whether to raise the consumption tax from the current 8 percent to 10 percent next fall.
For those Japanese who grumble about low voter turnouts in local and national elections, or who complain about the secretive character of political procedures, the open, democratic process of the recent Scottish referendum on independence was an object of envy.
A panel of experts has begun discussions on addressing Lower House electoral reforms, particularly the vote-value disparity between rural and urban districts, after talks among the ruling and opposition parties failed.
Natsuo Yamaguchi, the just re-elected chief of New Komeito, and other party leaders should realize that if the party fails to ensure that Japan stays on the pacifist road with respect to the passage of new legislation, it will lose its raison d'etre.
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.
The leaders of China and Japan need to take quick action to repair mutual ties that have unraveled since the Japanese government two years ago nationalized three of the Senkaku Islands — over which China also claims sovereignty.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has reshuffled executive posts of the Liberal Democratic Party and his Cabinet apparently with the aim of setting up his re-election as the Liberal Democratic Party's president in autumn 2015.
Legislative attempts to criminalize the act of "conspiracy" to commit some crimes as well as other government moves are enough to cause anxiety that Japan may be inching toward an Orwellian society.
