Election

As some of you may know, Japanese parliamentary elections are coming up July 11.  The Democratic Party has been in office only 10 months or so in a country where the more conservative Liberal Democratic Party has completely dominated politics since the end of World War II.  And the current Prime Minister, Kan Naoto (Kan being one of the shorter Japanese family names you'll come across), has been in office for even less time, since his predecessor resigned about a month ago over issues related to American military bases in Okinawa.  I gather Kan's government has been reasonably popular.  But the economy here is still moribund -- it has been for over a decade -- and Kan has just proposed raising taxes to cut down the federal deficit.  So it'll be interesting to see what happens.

This sign appeared on the street near my guesthouse a few weeks ago.

It's clear that each candidate is assigned a specific numbered slot on these signs.  These signs are up all over the city, and on each sign a given candidate's poster always appears in the same numbered slot.  I've seen a few other individual candidates' posters stuck up around town, but I'm not sure if they are legal.  It's possible that the sign pictured above is the only way you are allowed to advertise.  (Maybe a reader out there knows?)

In Yokohama, there are more candidates running, so the posters look like this:

Now, where have I seen something like this before?  Oh, yeah, I remember: in Korea in 2007 before the presidential election.  Here's what those posters looked like:



In Tokyo it was an audio nightmare.  I mentioned before that Japan is in the yelling-at-you-to-sell-you-something part of the world.  It's also in the yelling-at-you-to-get-your-vote part of the world.  Probably these two parts of the world largely overlap.

At busy intersections, vans would park and spew campaign messages out through high-powered megaphones.  These volume was set far too loud, and I quite literally feared for my hearing when I walked by them, fingers pressed over my ears.  Sometimes candidates or their representatives would come out and give speeches atop the vans, their words equally heavily amplified.  This is in Shibuya (Tokyo), a few days ago:

Lessee, where have I seen campaign workers wearing sashes like that before?  Oh, yeah, I remember: in Korea in 2007 on the day of the presidential election.  There really are a lot of little cultural overlaps between Japan and Korea.

Anyway, these stupid megaphone trucks would drive up and down the streets at all hours of the day and night.  Even up in my 7th-floor hotel room, with the windows and curtains firmly closed, it was loud enough to make me wonder if I'd have trouble falling asleep.

As it turns out, I'm not the only one bothered by this particularly noiseful way of conducting election campaigns.  I just came across this Washington Post article specifically on this topic.  Apparently candidates are barred by law from using other means (like knocking on doors or sending tweets) to carry out their campaigning.