Photo/Illutration Members of the Takagi village assembly attend a night committee session in Takagi, Nagano Prefecture, in December 2017. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Akito Goto, a resident of Takagi village in Nagano Prefecture, wears two hats.

One Saturday in December, Goto, 70, got up at 2 a.m. as the owner of a bento box lunch catering shop.

He filleted fish and tossed shrimp in breadcrumbs. Upon completing the prep work for his shop, he changed from his white work coat into a suit.

Goto set out for a 9 a.m. question-and-answer session with the village assembly for which he serves as the chairman.

Due to a chronic shortage of residents willing to serve as members, the village assembly in 2017 started holding night-time and holiday sessions for the convenience of members who hold regular jobs.

The innovative experiment won the “Yushu Seika-sho” (Outstanding achievement prize) of the Manifesto Awards, which are given to initiatives that contribute to the advancement of democracy in local politics.

However, only one candidate came forward in the assembly election held a year ago to fill two vacancies, leaving one seat unfilled to this day.

In an opinion poll conducted by the village government, a whopping 30 percent of respondents said they didn’t know any of their 11 representatives.

“For this small village with a population of less than 6,000, the poll results were simply shocking,” said Goto, his head hanging mournfully when I met with him in the village assembly hall.

Wearing two hats certainly doesn’t come easy for Goto. His wife is the only person with whom he runs the bento business.

“I once turned down an invitation to serve as the assembly chair, insisting I just couldn’t do it,” he said. “But now that I’m doing it, I have to live up to my role.”

His phone rang during our interview. The call was from a customer placing a bento order.

Unified local elections are scheduled for April. The last time, 25 percent of the races went uncontested even among prefectural assembly elections, which hardly served to reflect voters’ varied opinions.

Alarmed by this, the Local Government System Research Council compiled in late December a report recommending that local assemblies be urged to hold night-time and holiday sessions.

But in Takagi, practically everyone concurred that the problem runs deeper.

Local assembly elections go uncontested due to a shortage of people willing to serve as members. As a result, many residents don’t even know who their representatives are, which, in turn, means they have little interest in what their assembly is doing. And if there is little interest. ...

It won’t be easy to snap out of this downward spiral.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 12

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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