In this spring’s unified local elections, many candidates were elected without a vote due to the absence of contenders and voter turnout was generally low.

The dearth of citizens seeking to enter local politics has become increasingly serious in recent years. The critical situation raises many questions about the nation’s electoral system, which is the very foundation of democracy.

There is no denying that the current election system has become out of sync with the reality of society, which has changed radically due to the aging and shrinking of the population and digitalization.

The system needs bold changes so that it can better reflect the voters’ will.

UNCONTESTED ELECTIONS AND LOW TURNOUT

Of all the seats of the 41 prefectural assemblies that came up for election in the first half of the unified local elections, 25 percent were won uncontested.

In the Yamanashi prefectural assembly election, 62 percent of the seats available for election were won without a vote being cast. The ratio was higher than the 40 percent for the Wakayama, Tokushima, Hiroshima and Gifu prefectural assemblies.

Of the 366 single-seat prefectural assembly districts, 52 percent were not contested. Of these uncontested seats, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party took more than 80 percent.

The trend was also clear in the second half of the unified polls. The ratios of uncontested elections were 28 percent for the mayoral polls in 88 cities, 56 percent for 125 town and village chiefs and 30 percent for 373 town and village assemblies.

There were as many as 21 municipal assembly elections where the number of candidates was fewer than the number of seats available for election, up from eight four years before. One was an election for the 18-seat Okaya municipal assembly in Nagano Prefecture.

The average voter turnouts hit record lows for gubernatorial and prefectural assembly elections as well as for polls to choose members of city assemblies, local government chiefs and assembly members of towns and villages.

In many prefectures, voter turnout for prefectural assembly elections continued posting new record lows.

Tochigi Prefecture led the pack, with the turnout setting a new low for the 12th consecutive election dating back to 1979. Aomori, Gunma and Nagano followed with their 11th consecutive all-time low, while Akita and Yamagata recorded their 10th and eighth in a row, respectively.

The ratios of women among elected candidates rose to record highs of 14 percent and 22 percent for prefectural and city assemblies, respectively. But women are still grossly underrepresented in local assemblies, which are mostly dominated by old men.

This situation, particularly the serious shortage of candidates for local elections, is a long-standing problem. A variety of measures has been taken or proposed to tackle the challenge, such as holding assembly sessions on holidays and at night, introducing maternity and child care leave for assembly members and remote assembly sessions.

A string of legal changes has also been made to, for example, lifting the ban on distribution of fliers describing policy proposals by candidates for town and village assembly elections and easing the restrictions on assembly members’ holding side jobs.

Local assemblies have also made their own efforts to attract candidates. Some have reduced the number of seats to raise the salaries of members, while others have set up systems to recruit local residents to become involved in policy planning.

Still others have organized “classes” for local residents to learn about the costs of elections and the roles of assembly members.

ALLOW ASSEMBLY MEMBERS TO RUN WITHOUT LOSING THEIR JOBS

These measures have not worked to improve the situation apparently because being a local assembly member is not seen as an attractive occupation.

In small towns and villages, the salaries of assembly members are too low for them to earn sufficient livelihoods without holding a side job. In urban areas, the work of local assembly members as representatives of local communities is not clearly visible to ordinary citizens.

In addition, local assemblies are perceived to be rubber-stamp institutions to approve policy proposals by governors and mayors, and voters think that there will be no difference in whomever they elect to assemblies.

Symbolically, when local governments took different policy approaches to handling the COVID-19 pandemic, public attention was focused on the local government chiefs, with local assemblies failing to make their presence felt.

Given this grim reality, it is clear that measures that are far bolder and more radical than those that have been taken are required to tackle this challenge.

One step that can be immediately taken is to reduce the number of single-seat election districts, which tend to be occupied by the same incumbents for long periods. In addition, it is also necessary to revise the law to make it easier for citizens to run in local elections.

One idea worth considering is to allow local assembly members to run for different seats or posts without losing their current jobs. If municipal assembly members want to run in prefectural assembly elections, for example, they need to resign from their current seats.

They could end up being jobless if they fail to be elected. The law should be revised to remove the requirement so that they can pursue political careers on a different stage without worrying about their livelihoods.

Last year, the Local Government System Research Council, an advisory panel for the prime minister, made a couple of proposals to make it easier for corporate employees to run in local elections.

It proposed a system to grant employees a leave to run in elections and allow employees to serve as local assembly members while working for companies.

The council called on the central government to urge employers to introduce these measures. This proposal should be taken one step further by establishing a system that ensures that corporate employees will not face any disadvantages at their companies when they run in an election.

Another idea that merits consideration to secure diverse talent for local assemblies is to allow government employees with administrative work experience to serve concurrently as local assembly members.

This measure could raise the question of how to ensure political neutrality in the administrative duties they perform. But it would not cause serious harm to allow local government employees to serve as members of local assemblies in different administrative districts.

Another potentially effective measure is to lower the age of candidacy to 18. This has happened in some other countries. There would be nothing wrong about a high school student becoming a member of a local assembly.

‘REUNIFICATION’ OF LOCAL ELECTIONS ALSO AN OPTION

Another idea to boost public interest in local elections is to extend the official campaign period.

Among Tokyo’s 23 wards, Ota, Setagaya and Nerima had 82, 75, and 72 candidates, respectively, for their 50-seat assemblies. One week is too short to listen to and assess the policy proposals of all these candidates.

It is also difficult to choose one from among dozens of candidates. The voting system should be changed to such formats as allowing voters to choose multiple candidates or asking voters to mark the candidates they don’t want to be elected.

Such formulas would reduce the number of voters who do not cast ballots and raise voter turnout.

Also potentially effective is “reunification” of local elections so that all local government chiefs and assembly members are elected simultaneously. Despite being called unified local elections, the series of polls this spring represent only 27 percent of all local elections.

The first unified local elections involved all the local polls. But the ratio has been on a steady decline due to occasional resignations of local government chiefs and municipal mergers.

This goal could not be achieved in one fell swoop. The first step should be to establish a system for succession of the office of a local government chief.

It should work as follows. In the event that a governor or mayor resigns before the end of his or her term, the local government chief’s powers and duties are taken over by his or her deputy, named during the election campaign.

With such a system in place, extending the term gradually to bring the election dates closer would eventually lead to simultaneous local elections.

Such radical reforms of election systems are needed to revitalize Japan’s local politics. This is crucial for breaking a vicious cycle in which declining voter turnout leads to increased public distrust and disinterest in politics, making voters even more cynical about local polls.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 27