Sunday, October 31, 2021

Election Day


In the US, today is Halloween.  In Japan, today is election day for members of the House of Representatives.  Elections are always on Sunday and voters hand write the name of the people they are voting for on the ballot, but I don't know anything else about it. The following is from the Japan Today online news.  After reading it, I still don't understand.



The following is an explanation of how members of Japan's House of Representatives will be elected on Oct 31.

The number of lower house seats is 465, and 289 are elected from single-seat districts and the remaining 176 through proportional representation in 11 regional blocks.

Each voter casts two ballots at a polling station -- one to choose a candidate in a single-seat constituency and the other to select a party for proportional representation.

A candidate who runs in a single-seat district can also appear in the candidate list of the proportional representation system.

Even if such a candidate loses in the constituency, he or she could still secure a seat by the proportional representation vote, if the candidate's party wins enough votes, in what is known as a consolation round.

Political parties and groups, which have five or more Diet members or gained 2 percent or more of the total valid votes in the previous national election, can submit lists of their candidates for the proportional representation vote beforehand and will be given seats in line with their share of regional block votes.

They will then grant the block seats to candidates based on the order in which the lists are drawn up.

7 comments:

kiwikid said...

That sounds as confusing as the voting in NZ, I haven't lived there for years and don't vote, but the have a system called MMP and people who have not even been voted for can get get seat in Parliament. I think MMP is much the same as what they have in Japan.

Vireya said...

Well that is an interesting system! Two different types of seats and voting methods in the same house of parliament. Here the concept of different voting methods and different types of electorates for each house is common, but I can't imagine the intricacies that would come from combining them in one house. I shall have to do some reading about that.

Queeniepatch said...

This election is seen as a very important one - a measure how well Japan has fared in the pandemic and what the hopes are for the future. It is rainy and cold, but these days early vote casting is possible and the rain will not have as negative effect on the number of votes cast as in many of the previous elections.
What will the future hold?

Anonymous said...

I went to vote for the election.I think voting is a given right.
But it's a complicated election method.
At the time of the previous election. It was very strange as the constituency losers were elected.
I checked it at that time, but I'm still not convince of the“consolation round”.

roughterrain crane said...

Happy Halloween!
All the voting boxes are opened at pm8:00. Many TV stations are going to broadcast a special program on the general election. It's not easy tonight for you to watch other programs on TV.

Leonore Winterer said...

Sounds similar to how our Bundestag is elected. Minus the hand writing part!

Jeanie said...

How fascinating. I had no idea how the voting was different in Japan.