Election in Japan

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Topic :- Elections in Japan. Election can be defined as an act of choosing or selection of candidates who will represent the people in the parliament and in other positions in the government. Election is also said to be a contest between competing political parties or groups for governmental power. The Japanese political system: It has three types of elections: general elections to the House of Representatives held every four years (unless the lower house is dissolved earlier), elections to the House of Councillors held every three years to choose one-half of its members, and local elections held every four years for offices in prefectures, cities, and villages. Elections are supervised by election committees at each administrative level under the general direction of the Central Election Administration Committee, an attached organization to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC). The minimum voting age is twenty years; voters must satisfy a three-month residency requirement before being allowed to cast a ballot. For those seeking office, there are two sets of age requirements: twenty-five years of age for admission to the House of Representatives and most local offices, and thirty years of age for admission to the House of Councilors’ and the prefectural governorship. Type of party system in Japan: We have the zero party system, one party system, two party system and the multi party system in the electoral processes. Japan, for many years was a one party system dominant state until 1993 with “Liberal Democratic Party” as the ruling party (1955 – 2009). Presently, Japan is practicing multi party system with about seventeen (17) political parties, and the incumbent ruling political party in Japan is The Democratic Party of Japan. . According to survey by Yomiuri Shimbun in April 2010, almost half of Japanese voters did not support any political
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