Elections

The local elections were held on Sunday. I haven't been able to ask many people about them, but from what I can tell candidates were allowed to campaign for about 3 or 4 weeks in very restricted ways. There were boards with grids on them posted on major streets where each candidate was allowed to put one square poster. I didn't see any political ads on tv. However, for the past two weeks I've heard nothing but loud, shrill, annoying recordings being played at top volume from slow driving campaign vans. I have no idea how anyone could understand what was actually being said, and even if they did, how they could really evaluate a candidate's agenda and values based on the 15 seconds that the van screamed through their neighborhood.

In the local elections, citizens vote for individuals. However, in the national election for Prime Minister, citizens vote for a party and the party chooses the actual Prime Minister.

As a side note, I found out a couple days ago that Japan doesn't have juries in its judicial system!