June 18, 2015
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2015 June 17 - 23 [POLITICS]
Minimum voting age changed to 18 |
Japanese Communist Party lawmakers in Diet deliberations supported the bill, saying, “To bring the will of voters with a wider range of ages to the Diet will lead to further development of parliamentary democracy.”
The bill will take effect in one year. About 2.4 million young people will become eligible voters in the House of Councilors election in the summer of 2016.
The JCP has, since its foundation, called for giving 18- and 19-year-old citizens the right to vote. However, the party criticized constitutional revisionists for attempting to use the 18-year-old suffrage issue as a path toward amendments to the Constitution in tandem with the 2007 law on procedures for constitutional revision which sets the minimum age eligible for national referendums to 18.
Young people who will be 18 in one or two years are worried about whether they would be mature enough to cast a responsible vote.
Forty-three students of Shibaura Institute of Technology Junior and Senior High School in Kashiwa City (Chiba Pref.) on June 16 participated in a debate. They expressed views such as “Each political party should focus on policies for the youth to attract more young voters” and “Young people had better go to vote because politics determines our future.”
Past related articles:
> Bill to lower voting age to 18 passed through Lower House committee [June 3, 2015]
> Constitutional revisionists resolve to enhance campaigns[May 2, 2015]
> JCP Kasai proposes universal suffrage at age 18 [March 23, 2012]
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