Japan Goes to the Polls

Japanese voters go to the polls this Sunday to decide the future composition of the upper house of the parliament. As you will read in the analyses this election is not of major importance regarding the government of Japan (see more of the political system at Manuel Alvarez' Electionressources) but the election is still an important test for the ruling party LDP which is set alongside its partner New Komeito to endure a trouncing. At the heart of the matter, as you can read below, lies many issues but first and foremost is the discontent with the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. First off, I recommend our own Manuel Alvarez' note over at GEM.

Voters in Japan go to the polls this Sunday to choose half the members of the Sangiin or House of Councillors - the upper chamber of the Japanese Parliament, the National Diet. A total of seventy-three seats will be filled in forty-seven constituencies by the semi-proportional Single Non-Transferable Vote (SNTV) system, while forty-eight seats will be allocated on a nationwide basis by proportional representation: Parliamentary Elections in Japan has further information on the House of Councillors' electoral system.

Also the British magazine the Economist has a primer on the election in its Global Agenda as well as BBC's short article here furthermore serves as an entry point to much interesting information of the coming election in Japan. For even more commentary I also recommend Morgan Stanley's Robert Alan Feldman's recent piece which carries valuabe information on the electoral mathematics of Sunday's election. Finally, before I leave you to digest all this information for yourself I should also note the FT's article today which also links to many interesting sources of information on the Japanese upper house election.