Japan Society for the Promotion of Science:Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research
Date (from‐to) : 2002 -2003
Author : YAMADA Kenji; MIZUMURA Hiroko; OGAWA Nobuko; ICHIBANGASE Yasuko
1/.The present regulations of the Public Electoral Office in Japan prevent people with special needs from exercising their right to vote. The current regulations exist to stop a repeat of the rigged local election that occurred in 1951. However, the present rules concerning voting were not developed with people with special needs in mind but rather to stop bad elections. This has resulted in the infringement of the elector's right to vote and hence violates the constitution. Even with the introduction of the postal voting system and improvements, the violation still exists 70 years later. 2/.Over 50% of participants in this study did not vote. The reasons for this were (a) bad health and (b) mobility difficulties. None of the reasons were related to disability. Mobility difficulty did not correlate directly with walking and helped to explain the success of moving the polling stations on voting day. When considering the voting behavior, disability was not a barrier, rather, environmental factors were. As such, to consider that voting from home is due to mobility problems of the elder is wrong. 3/.It is clear that disability dose not correlate with the reason why people did not vote, but rather, as in the Holland, their will to vote. In Sweden, voting from home is set up as a part of the National system under the absentee voting section. The rate of voting has increased due to improvements in the voting environment that is in line with national policy.