February 26, 2025
It was learned at a meeting of the Lower House Special Committee on Political Reform on February 25 that the national budget for election awareness campaigns has been sharply reduced to100 million yen in FY2021 from 2.3 billion yen in FY1996.
Japanese Communist Party representative Shiokawa Tetsuya at the meeting argued that the freedom of election campaigning should be expanded. He stressed the need to review the current complicated Public Offices Election Law so that the people as sovereign individuals can take part in elections more casually in many ways, choose their own representatives, and actively participate in politics.
Shiokawa pointed out that election administration plays an important role in enlightening the general public on a daily basis about elections and what are deemed to be election violations. He asked how much state budget is allocated for election awareness campaigns.
An official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications election department replied that the budget for election awareness campaigns was approximately 2.3 billion yen in FY1996 and 100 million yen in FY2021.
Shiokawa then took up the issue of understaffed election commissions. He said, “Political franchise constitutes a basis of national sovereignty and parliamentary democracy. Relevant budgets and the number of officials related to elections should be increased drastically.”
The Special Committee on Political Reform at the same meeting approved with majority votes, including the Japanese Communist Party, a bill to amend the Public Offices Election Law to introduce a new provision for the preservation of decency regarding election campaign posters.
The revised law stipulates that campaign posters must not contain any degrading content, requires that the names of candidates must be put on posters, and imposes a fine for business use of posters.
Japanese Communist Party representative Shiokawa Tetsuya at the meeting argued that the freedom of election campaigning should be expanded. He stressed the need to review the current complicated Public Offices Election Law so that the people as sovereign individuals can take part in elections more casually in many ways, choose their own representatives, and actively participate in politics.
Shiokawa pointed out that election administration plays an important role in enlightening the general public on a daily basis about elections and what are deemed to be election violations. He asked how much state budget is allocated for election awareness campaigns.
An official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications election department replied that the budget for election awareness campaigns was approximately 2.3 billion yen in FY1996 and 100 million yen in FY2021.
Shiokawa then took up the issue of understaffed election commissions. He said, “Political franchise constitutes a basis of national sovereignty and parliamentary democracy. Relevant budgets and the number of officials related to elections should be increased drastically.”
The Special Committee on Political Reform at the same meeting approved with majority votes, including the Japanese Communist Party, a bill to amend the Public Offices Election Law to introduce a new provision for the preservation of decency regarding election campaign posters.
The revised law stipulates that campaign posters must not contain any degrading content, requires that the names of candidates must be put on posters, and imposes a fine for business use of posters.
