How Do Elections Work in Japan?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Elections in Japan can get complicated, so this video simplifies how voters get to vote in both the Lower House/House of Representatives (shuugiin or 衆議院) and Upper House/House of Councilors (sangiin or 参議院). This video includes additional changes that were made in the past few years.
Japan's electoral system was adopted in 1994 after an eight-party coalition defeated the main ruling party, the Liberal Democratic Party, in 1993. Before 1996, Japan used the Single Non Transferable Vote (SNTV) system or the "chusenkyokusei" (中選挙区制). Japan currently uses the Mixed Member Majoritarian (MMM) or the "shosenkyoku hireidaihyou ryouritsusei" (小選挙区比例代表並立制). Each voter receives two ballots per house and the districts are divided differently. In this video, we will review the background behind changing the electoral system and how Japan's electoral system works.
The architects of this new electoral system desired to see a renewed Japan. Unfortunately, the LDP still dominates Japanese politics to this day.
Video Chapters
- Different Types of Electoral Systems 00:00
- Japan's Old Electoral System & Why it Changed 00:40
- Brief Overview of the Parliament (Lower and Upper House) 2:00
- The Lower House: How Elections Works 02:51
- The Upper House: How Elections 04:11
- Is the Current Electoral System Working? 6:14
If you are interested in how this new electoral system inadvertently resulted in a longer LDP dominance, check out the following video: • What Political Party D...
Learn more about Japan's government structure: • How the Japanese Gover...
Learn more about Japan's political parties: • ALL Japanese Political...
DISCLAIMER: The actual ballot is a blank piece of paper with a box to write a candidate's name or political party when appropriate (depending on the district). For the sake of simplicity and to convey my message clearly, I have used checklists. Writing in two candidates, addressing the candidate, adding anything to the candidate’s name, or having bad handwriting can invalidate your ballot.
#japanesepolitics #japan #politics
The way you explained the various kinds of electoral systems, how people vote, and the history of Japan's shift from SNTV to parallel voting within almost 7 minutes is nothing short of impressive. Truly worth the wait!!!
Here's hoping that something good should come out of the political scandal Japan is facing right now, namely a shift from MMM to MMP among other things.
Quality content, as always!!!
Thank you for the encouragement! My goal is to always have my videos under 10 minutes - and I truly believe that getting to the point matters more than lengthening a video just for the YT algorithm 🫡
I'll be getting to the scandal and new updates sometime soon (maybe June), but for now, the next video will be about Japan's economic situation. In the next video, I'll aim to question whether the "optimism" in Japan's economy shared by Western TH-camrs and mainstream media is valid. Hoping to have this released in two weeks as usual, but I might need to add another week as it's a lot of information and just simply organizing my thoughts.
@@japanyuntaku2254Quality over quantity as they say. Delivering all the necessary context and information within less than 10 minutes as well as you being engaging in the comments is why I keep coming back here for more. 🙌🙌🙌
Looking forward on your local point of view about the recent opinion regarding Japan finally getting over the lost decades as the ones I've watched are from outside of Japan, as well as an in-depth explanation about the slush fund scandal and the question if it would warrant another large scale reforms like what happened 30 years ago.
Please take all the time you need, as your uploads are truly worth the wait. Thank you for your hard work. 🙇♂️🙇♂️🙇♂️
@@nadrini300 Thank you again for the encouragement and active engagement! 🫡
I am gonna need to watch this atleast 3 times before I understand it all 🙏
Please feel free to rewatch and increase my view hours! 😂
@@japanyuntaku2254 got it 👍😄
Wow, that was exhausting to absorb. 😅😅
It's a lot to absorb, but the regular voter only thinks about their district and overall party to vote every election! Imagine if voters have to vote for both the Lower and Upper House in the same year - now that is a lot to organize and absorb 😂
If the japanese ballot is more into writing your candidate than checking a box, then can i write "Hatsune Miku" to lower house (vocaloids need representation in the japanese government)?
You can write Hatsune Miku or Uzumaki Naruto or Gojo Satoru, etc. to make a point 😂 Of course, the ballot will be invalid as none of them are officially running...yet 🫡
How much does candidate quality play a role in single-member districts? Are the candidates in the single-member districts more free to vote against the party line?
More than candidate quality, it boils down (1) which party and/or (2) which big name politician came to support this candidate. I would say regionalism plays the biggest role, although the recent political party scandal proves that regionalism isn't the answer for all seats. I'm not sure whether I fully understand what candidates "voting against the party line" looks like in a district because the party is sending them out, but there are some candidates that are famous enough to criticize their own party yet run from the same party. Examples would be Koizumi and Ishiba from the LDP.
I think the best electoral system is open list proportional representation, I hope Japan will change their electoral system to this even though is unlikely happening
I think changing Japan's electoral system would help, but Japan will also need to change laws regarding fundraising and party politics...
South korea has a very strange system. Its legislative elections have a mixed system but its presidential elections are first past the post.
He got TLDR news to make that thumbanail
I'll take that as a compliment 🫡
It's very strange to me that Japan still has a bicameral Diet. Usually, bicameral systems are favored by federal systems to directly represent constituent states, or as a leftover of stronger monarchical systems to represent the nobility. Japan is a unitary country, so no constituent states, and the House of Peers, which represented the post-bakufu Japanese aristocracy, was abolished after the war during the American occupation. The House of Councillors replaced it, but doesn't serve either typical reasons for having an upper house and just seems to complicate things.
True, it definitely is an old system that was rebranded into the house that we have today. While it is stronger than the British House of Lords, it pretty much does the same thing as like Lower House, just weaker.
The only benefit I see is the fact that the ruling party needs to have a super majority in order to pass any law they like; this has been prevented due to the existence of the House of Councilors.
@@japanyuntaku2254 There's at least that considering the LDP has long desired serious, controversial constitutional changes...
Good on Japan for not using FPTP. I detest that system so much
We use FPTP for only the Lower House Local Districts. Otherwise, it's all Proportional Representation!
@@japanyuntaku2254 thank you so much for the info. A great informative video btw. Congratulations!
If you want a very difficult challenge. Try to explain thailand senate election
I'll look it up!
First thing is people can not vote until they pay 2,500 Baht registration fee.
Australia uses a preferential voting system. Our senate uses a system that is closer to the usa senate elections.
(Assuming that you are from Australia) Are Australians generally happy with Preferential voting or does it not really matter given that going to the polls is mandatory?
@@japanyuntaku2254
Yes, iam Australian.
i think most people are happy with it but there is a small minority that always complain about it. I generally think it doesn't really matter. Most people vote and wait for the results.
The one thing that does cause some contention here is that we have mandatory voting and that is marginally unpopular. Especially for local government elections.
Also state politics is a bit more complex because the states all use different systems for instance in tasmania we have the Hare-Clark system which is somewhat complex it is a sort of proportional single transferable vote sytem.
@@poil8351 Huh, I would assume mandatory voting would be an overall plus because everyone is forced to engage (hopefully for the better), but I can see why people would complain.
They don't lmao.