AS 298| PERFOMANCE STUDIES
times on the radio. He can also place five
DOMER, PRINCESS LOREN D.
Election Campaigning Japanese Style by Gerald L. Curtis
THE OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN
Election Law in 1934- the prohibition of pre-election
campaigning was introduced for the first time. Other
restrictions on campaign practices were also
incorporated and penalties for violations made more
severe.
The Japanese election law divides the country into 123
election districts which elect the 486 members of the
Lower House. Each of these districts elects from 3-5
members, with each voter voting for only one
candidate.
 Certain campaign practices familiar in other
countries are prohibited in Japan such as:
- Canvassing from house to house for votes,
whether done by the candidate, his staff,
or people acting on their own volition in
support of a candidate
- Signature campaigns are prohibited and no
one is allowed to publish popularity polls
- Serving of food and refreshments as part
of the campaign
- No activities are allowed intended to raise
ardor (running a procession of cars,
marching a large group of people, using
siren and employing a band., etc.
- Sidewalk speeches cannot be made later
than 9:00 pm and repeated calling
activities are prohibited except at a hall
where the candidate is giving a private
speech
- While giving a sidewalk speech or from the
campaign car, 7:00 am and 8:00 pm are
also restricted
 The major speech making activity of the Diet
candidate is participation in the joint speech
meetings (tachiai enzetsukai) conducted by the
Election Management Committee.
 The candidate can hold private speech
meetings.
 Due to restrictions in the Election Law, no
candidate is allowed to buy tv or radio or buy
space for advertisements in newspapers.
Candidates for the Lower House are allowed to
make, free of charge, 3-5 mins of
radiobroadcast. No provision is made for tv.
The candidate may also submit a short
biographical statement for broadcast by
station personnel three times on tv and ten
newspaper advertisements of determined
length. The cost for all candidate advertising in
the mass media are assumed by the govt.
 The formula used for determining the amount
of money a candidate may legally spend is to
multiply the number of registered voters in the
district by 10.5 yen, divide the total by number
of candidates, and add 1,200,00 yen
The candidates campaign in the official
campaign period has two dimensions.
A. Public dimension- the candidate appeals
for voter support through speeches,
posters, and other limited means of
publicity and exposure allowed of him.
B. Private dimension- the candidate’s
campaign boss and few top level supports
maintain communication with the
members of the candidate’s organization
throughout the district and make vital
decisions concerning campaign finances.
ELECTION CAMPAIGNING JAPANESE STYLE
1. THE POLITICS OF PARTY ENDORSEMENT
 Within the LDP, endorsement of Diet
candidates is determined by the national party
organization after it receives recommendation
from its prefectural chapters.
A. Nationally oriented group (ex-bureaucrat) -
seek party endorsement by exploiting ties with
national party leaders and relying on this
leadership to secure the support of the
relevant prefectural party chapter.
B. Locality-oriented type (local politician)-
obtains support of the leadership of the local
party chapter and, through this leadership,
pressing one’s case for endorsement by the
national organization.
Party endorsement is officially determined by a small
party oligarchy.
Three basic strategic options to become a member of
the Diet:
A. Gain the favor of an incumbent from his district
and inherit his support base when the
incumbent vacates his seat.
B. Run as an independent, and, if elected, present
one’s own incumbency as reason for
endorsement in the next election.
C. (for the fledging candidate) to align himself
with party politicians strong enough to
overcome incumbent positions.
Party principles governing endorsement policy.
A. candidates whose victory appears certain are to
be endorsed.
B. under no conditions are more candidates to be
endorsed in any one district than the number of
seats the district hold.
C. endorsement should be based upon the
“incumbent first” principle
D. no person being prosecuted for a criminal
offense is to be endorsed.
2. CAMPAIGN ORGANIZATION UTILIZING THE
NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATIONS
 There is a variety of data showing that
Japanese on the whole show a greater concern
about local than national elections. Voting is
regarded as an obligation to the community.
 An LDP Diet member often has support in his
District concentrated in a limited geographical
area of which his home town is the center.
There are several reasons for conservative politicians
having a high concentration of votes in a narrow
geographical areas.
A. A great deal of pride is taken in the “local boy
who made good”
B. The location of homes or birthplace become
more meaningful criteria for choosing among
them. It seems natural if you are going to vote
for an LDP candidate who is from the same area.
C. Use of separate area organizations in the
several town and villages to deliver the vote
through a web of interpersonal ties leads
conservative politicians to concentrate their
activities in their home areas because they
already have existing ties they can build upon.
D. Concentration of support reflects a strong strain
of localism in the Japanese electorate.
Catching the “floating votes” (fudohyo) thru
Neighborhood Associations
 Floating voter is the person who leads an urban
existence away from the communal pressures
for village life.
Three general strategic responses:
A. To appeal directly to the voters during the short
official campaign period within the limits of the
election law
B. To create a personal city-wide organization of
supports with basically three functions:
 Gather and deliver the vote of the small
percentage of the electorate susceptible
to such appeals
 Provide a city-wide network of
campaigners that would appeal for votes
 Provide a means of access for the
candidate himself to meet the voters, not
through publicized rallies or other
activities
C. The creation of a mass-membership
organization that would provide various
activities for large numbers of the electorate
and bring them into direct contact with the
candidate or the use of koenkai.
 For a Prefectural Assembly or Diet or Mayoral
candidate, that is, a candidate who campaigns
throughout the city, they form convenient
subdivisions of the city for the organization of
campaign activities
 Neighborhood or chonai , neighborhood
association chonaikai, served as an instrument
for imposing the control and demands of the
central government on the populace.
 Chonaikai are not organs of the LDP as such.
They are organizations of people generally
sympathetic to conservative party politicians;
organizations that can conveniently used by
LDP politicians in mobilizing electoral support.
 For the conservative candidate the chonaikai
provides an ideal base upon which to build a
campaign organization. There he could find
politically interested and conservatively
inclined voters, people intimately familiar with
their local neighborhoods who could appeal
supports of friend and acquaintances, and
opportunities for the candidate to meet with
large numbers of conservatives voters in the
city.
 One of the most important functions of
chonaikai before the calling of elections was to
arrange meetings between the candidate and
the neighborhood residents. These meeting
were called as Political Study Sessions, a
euphemism made necessary by the legal
prohibition on all campaigning outside of a
short specified period.
3. THE KOENKAI
“votes could no longer be gathered only with
the support of the bosses. “
 Koenkai is the use of mass membership
organization with the function of organizing
large numbers of general electorate on behalf
of a particular Diet candidate
 Koenkai represents an innovation in campaign
strategies and is to be contrasted with a
strategy of reliance on local politicians and
 other community leaders. The koenkai
emerged as politicians tried to compensate for
an inability of such elites to adequately
perform their intended function of gathering
enough votes to insure election. While relying
on local leaders to deliver the vote to the
extent possible, Diet candidates have in
addition created koenkai for the purpose of
organizing support directly among electorate.

REASONS FOR INCORPORATING LOCAL

POLITICIANS INTO THE KOENKAI STRUCTURE
1. Greater air of democracy
2. Institutionalizing the support of local
politicians
3. Stands as a serious challenge to the
continuation of a dominant role for such
leaders in Diet campaign strategy.

 Koenkai usually consists of several divisions: a

women’s group, a youth group, and so on
 In all, it is estimated that koenkai of LDP Diet
members have a total membership of
somewhere around ten million.
 The politician at the head of a koenkai
constantly endeavors to expand the
organization’s membership in order to foster
an image of mass support which in turn is used
to attract new support. The members
participate in the politician’s career and are
encouraged to see themselves as the backbone
of his support. The hope for result is some
stability in support and a group of enthusiastic
campaigners.