Japan Bans Use of Web Sites in Elections 190
couch_warrior writes with a BBC article about Japan's choice to restrain political speech in the 21st century. The nation of Japan bans the use of internet sites to solicit voters in its upper house elections. Based on election laws drawn up in the 50s, candidates are restricted in the ways they can reach their constituents. Candidates are even restrained from distributing leaflets that will reach more than 3% of the voters. What's more, people who are trying to change the laws are failing. Despite heavy internet usage and a strong installed base of high-speed connectivity, young people just don't feel involved in politics. "In Japan, 95% of people in their 20s surf the web, but only a third of them bother to vote. Some, though, do not seem keen on politicians using the web to try to win their support. 'I believe that internet resources are not very official,' says Kentaro Shimano, a student at Temple University in Tokyo. 'YouTube is more casual; you watch music videos or funny videos on it, but if the government or any politicians are on the web it doesn't feel right.' Haruka Konishi agrees. 'Japanese politics is something really serious,' she says. 'Young people shouldn't be involved, I guess because they're not serious enough or they don't have the education.' There cannot be many places in the world where students feel their views should not count. Perhaps it is really a reflection of the reality — that they do not."
Re:That's the difference! (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, if that's the case, then I'd say their relatively low crime rate (and ridiculously low rate of gun crime), low unemployment, high literacy rate, high median income, and the fact that they haven't been involved in a major war since WWII shows their apathy is working out pretty well for them.
Maybe we could learn a thing or two from their political process? Is is serving us in any way, shape or form to have presidential election campaigns that are now 2 years long? That's what internet campaigning has done for us...
Maybe the fact that Japan has rejected political appeals to a bunch of MySpace losers is actually a *good* thing...
Re:Define "definitely" (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like a great way to protect the status q (Score:4, Interesting)
It's definetely impacted by the seniority system that permeates the country. If you're old, you have a say, if you're young, you do what you're told. Obviously this is not a hard rule, but there definetely is such a trend. The standard view is that such a system would encouage some serious corruption (having a real and powerful organizations of organized crime does not help, they assasinated a difficult major during the last election).
I can't say I understand the Japanese democratic systems. I'm sure it protects the status quo, will probably change, though will change very slowly as the next 2 generations grow up. The system works somehow, and people still have to option to change things if they get completely out of hand.
Re:That's the difference! (Score:3, Interesting)
Won't last forever (Score:1, Interesting)
Japan at Election Time (Score:5, Interesting)
* You'll find each neighborhood plastered with election posters from 30 or so candidates. These show the candidate grinning or looking stern, their name and a 'Vote for Tanaka'.
* Election Vans drive around the neighborhood saying 'I am Tanaka. I am Tanaka. Please Vote for me. I am Tanaka. I am Tanaka. Please Vote for me. I am Tanaka. I am Tanaka. Please Vote for me.' These annoy the crap out of everyone.
* That's all folks! Try making your choice off of that!
* Websites would have given a place for some intelligent debate, because you get nothing from the above. If you watch NHK's News Hour you will get some reasonably intelligent analysis, but for local issues you have to rely on the local stations and they do next to no politics. If your household watches the variety show or the kids want to watch anime channels instead, you'll get no information at all.
* There's only one real party: The LDP. Sure, there are fringe parties, but apart from one glitch (quickly) corrected the LDP have always held power. (Don't get too cocky: In the US the Republicans and Democrats are pretty similar. Last Election both Pro-War and Pro-Big Business.)
* Most Japanese don't talk politics. They've realized it doesn't make a difference. They try and carve out a living and hope the politicians leave them alone (Again don't get cocky. The hours you spend sitting around shooting the breeze with your buddies might feel good, but ultimately makes no difference either.)
* There's a big disaster looming in Japan because the pension system has been paying out more than is coming in. This has been known for 20 years, but no one has had the guts to do anything about it. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's plan to Save Japan? He's going to make sure children know how to use chopsticks. Other than that, he's done nothing. How did Abe get elected? He didn't. The LDP appointed him. His Grandpa was an important politician and now it's "his turn".
Re:Japan at Election Time (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:good rule (Score:2, Interesting)
In the UK, paid TV and radio advertisements are banned, but you can still campaign via posters, leaflets and print advertisements.
The main problem with excessive restrictions is that you hand a substantial advantage to the incumbents, who will usually get substantial media coverage due to their position.
I suspect that has a lot to do with the Japanese system. As it stands, the ruling LDP gets far more airtime simply due to day-to-day (i.e. "non-election") political coverage.
Re:definitely not! (Score:2, Interesting)
Sorry to derail, but the Book of Revelation isn't a prophecy. It was a book written buy a guy as a message to the people about hope. Hope that the persecution under the Roman empire (at the time) would end soon. The book is basically nothing more than a cleverly written piece, with its message hidden behind extravagant symbolism, about how the Roman Empire would fall at the hands of the Christians, which it basically did.
Preachers like to throw it around to scare people, especially into donating money (or helping churches out in other ways). Why keep your money and put any value your own time if the world is going to end soon? It's an easy way to control people.
Re:That's the difference! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Those damn vans. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Japan at Election Time (Score:3, Interesting)
Japan's culture is different, and I suspect it's the possibility of public shame and humiliation that restrains corruption -- the minister who recently committed suicide over what in the West would be a minor scandal comes to mind. The people don't seem to "believe" in democracy, "making their vote matter", or foisting their views on others; they simply live and let live, and I think that's a healthier attitude than many people in the West have, who seem to think life is all about politics and electing a government that gives you what you want.
Re:Bingo! My daughter's experience exactly. (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Yeah, I was one of those token gaijin. If all he's doing is being the human tape recorder, though, that means he's crap. I knew people like that. If you're going to be serious about being an ALT (assistant language teacher), you at least make your own lessons. A big part of that program (I worked for the government; lately schools are turning to private companies) is about just providing entertainment for the kids in hopes that they won't notice that English class, which should be fun and empowering, is the most boring awful experience in school. I have a master's in English, requiring a lot of study of linguistics, but I did not know that there was a "rule" for when to pronounce "the" with a schwa and when to pronounce it with an [i] ("ee"). This is the kind of idiotic crap they teach in English class. If you don't follow the pronunciation pattern, people will still understand what you mean, but if you skip the article or use the wrong one, or use one when you shouldn't, they won't. The problem is, the latter only comes with meaningful communicative practice; the former can be crammed for a multiple-choice test. Ugh, don't get me started.
2) I saw horrible, horrible things in the education system here. Heartbreaking things. I, like much of the Slashdot crowd I'm sure, endured more than my fair share of bullying in junior high and high school, and made it clear to the kids in question that nothing would be tolerated on my watch. A loud and public dressing-down of two bullies who stood up from their desks, walked over and started punching a fat kid from both sides IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS got me a private talking-to by the principal. Telling a kid to go home after he PUSHED ME AND TOOK A SWING AT ME (on the same day that he TRIPPED AN ELDERLY FEMALE TEACHER IN THE HALL) got me a lecture on how I don't have the right to deny this piece of shit an education.
My wife was a teacher at that school for 15 years. She once went on an exchange to a US high school. She couldn't believe how "adult" they were, and she came back horribly depressed (she quit only a couple years after).
As a college teacher, some of the crap I deal with on a daily basis is the stuff of junior high. I have to ask for quiet. I have people carrying on full-volume conversations across the room WHILE I'M TALKING (and not at the beginning of class--right in the middle). I have people who walk into class, plop down, and GO TO SLEEP (these are classes of like 25 people--not lecture halls). I point out that they don't have to come if they don't want. They say they'll be good. "BE GOOD." IN COLLEGE. It is unbelievable. And this is at a pretty good school, and I am (I hear) one of the more interesting teachers. I hope I never find out what it's like to be one of the boring ones.
3) Technology... I just can never figure out where this idea comes from. I'm sitting in front of a computer full of Taiwanese parts designed by American companies. I have a 50M DSL line that runs at 3M on a good day (see, those amazing numbers you read about the speeds here are the speeds AT THE POST--they have little bearing on what you'll get in your house--yay Japanese lack of consumer rights!). My phone is a Sharp (Japanese), but is almost as big as my first Motorola flip-phone in the US (ca 1998), the big difference being that there I could afford to talk on it. My bill is $70/mo, with no minutes. I can call my wife all I want, but I'm careful about using it for anything but. It's 3G, but I once read an article on MSN while waiting for the doctor and when I got my bill I found that that little web surf cost me $25.
When I want tech, I wait until a trip to the US, where I'll have more choice for less money. I just honestly have no idea what people are talking about, "technology" in Japan. Here, more than anywhere else, it seems, technology only serves the companies that sell it. Anything that might make something useful to the user is disabled or requires a trip to Akihabara, which has become a kind of manga
Re:Define "definitely" (Score:2, Interesting)
The dumb country bumpkin stereotype for enlisted folk just isn't true anymore. And even if it were, the Army takes those young people and very explicitly teaches them a system of values that acts as a moral compass that, quite frankly, a lot of Americans never get exposed to. I'm getting out of the military next year - I'm in Germany now - and I realized something a few months back:
I was walking home from the bar in my little German town with a couple of my buddies when a large group of rowdy "youths" approached - you know, obviously drunk, loud, obnoxious, mean-looking guys. I immediately knew they were American soldiers - you know, the haircuts, they were actually in good physical condition (not the typical emaciated-looking European), etc. As they approached us, they recognized us, quieted down a little, said hi (Sir), and kept on going.
It dawned on me that had this been America, and those *not* been Soldiers, I would have been really, really nervous about me and 2 other friends walking past a group of 8-10 rowdy youths. But since I knew they were Soldiers, I knew that they, regardless of their ebullience, would be overall, well-behaved.
Now, that's not to say that Soldiers don't get in trouble: they do! (And the media is somehow always right there, eager to point it out. Imagine if they paid as close attention to the behavior of similarly aged kids in college! That would be eye-opening!) It's just that, in general, I happen to trust young Soldiers to do the right thing in any given situation. I don't have that level of confidence in a random youth plucked out of the civilian US population, and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Army culture instills a very definite sense of right and wrong, and gives these kids a way to make sound, rational judgements that I think the typical American lacks.
Just my 2 cents.