JAPAN

When Halloween met election night in Tokyo

The turnout at the lower house polls was as lackluster as ever. And for trick-or-treating in Shibuya?

Pedestrians walk past a “Happy Halloween” message written with chalk on the asphalt in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. This year, Halloween and a major election ended up sharing a date. Turnout among Japan's youth was expected to be lower than the 31% in the 2019 Upper House election — a far cry from countries such as Denmark, where it is around 80%. In the United States, around 50% of 18- to 29-year-olds voted in the 2020 presidential election — an 11-point increase over the 2016 ballot. | ROB GILHOOLY

By Rob Gilhooly
Contributing writer

Nov 1, 2021

Japan’s voters went to the ballot stations Sunday for their first general election in four years. In the end, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party secured a comfortable majority of the 465-member Lower House, albeit with a pruning of in its pre-election tally of 276 seats.

When it comes to elections, a major talking point has been Japan’s younger generation, who are largely seen as being apathetic toward politics despite the voting age being lowered from 20 to 18 five years ago.

The first time 18-year-olds were given the opportunity to have their say was in 2017’s general election, when the overall voter turnout was 53.68%, the second-lowest in postwar Japan. Only 33.85% of those in their 20s voted on that occasion, less than half of the 72.04% recorded among those in their 60s.