The pointlessness of election campaigns in Japan is dramatically exemplified by the sound trucks screaming the names of their respective candidates over and over. The stupidity of election campaigns in Japan is audaciously exemplified by something that happened in my own neighborhood last week prior to the Tokyo assembly vote. One candidate, whose name happened to be same as that of the ward in which I live, kept screeching, "You write your address all the time, so just write it again when you go to vote."

It's easy to blame the parties for their lack of imagination and the electorate for putting up with it, but it's difficult to blame either when campaign rules and etiquette make it difficult to share meaningful opinions in the media.

Last week, veteran TV personality Kyosen Ohashi announced via satellite from Los Angeles that he would be a candidate on the Democratic Party of Japan ticket in the upcoming Upper House election. It was odd enough that Ohashi threw his hat into the ring, as it were, from the other side of the Pacific; still odder that he announced he didn't plan to be physically in Japan for the campaign, but would, again, "appeal to voters" via satellite.