When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the Lower House in November and called a general election, some people complained about the cost. Why should taxpayers foot the bill for an election that was more or less being carried out on a whim?
The complaint got lost in the post-election buzz, when other complaints became louder, but at least one person still wonders about all that money. In a new column in the Asahi Shimbun called "Re: Okotae Shimasu" (Re: Answering Questions), a reader mentions that she heard that the election cost ¥63 billion. What, she asks, was that money spent on?
It's a good question, but one that's difficult to answer since the government is still adding up all the receipts and won't actually reveal the results until next fall, by which time the election will be a distant memory. However, the Asahi was able to give the reader some idea based on the last general election held in 2012, which cost ¥58.8 billion.