Loss and Gain in Upper house election 2019

An episode of the Quirky Japanese Podcast podcast, hosted by Yuto Ito, titled "Loss and Gain in Upper house election 2019" was published on August 3, 2019 and runs 6 minutes.

August 3, 2019 ·6m · Quirky Japanese Podcast

0:00 / 0:00

Summary

Politics is not zero sum game. We learn the wisdom from the result. Today, I introduce the summary of the upper house election. Teens turn out rate drop 14 points from last time. The average of the turnout rate was 48%. It means majority didn’t go to the vote. This rate was the second worst number after the WWⅡ. As a result, the coalition kept the control in the Upper house. The number of the seats didn’t make a radical change. But, the coalition couldn’t leach the two thirds of the seats which allow them to change the article in the constitution. Let’s look at the blight side. First openly gay politician won the seat. Taiga Ishikawa is the 45 years old male. In Japan, gay marriage is yet illegal. PM Abe idealise traditional marriage style which within male-female sex. Ishikawa said to the REUTERS “Since the early 2000s, the issue of same-sex marriage has progressed leaps and bounds. It will happen within the six years of my term, I am sure.” Last year in Taiwan, President Tsui leaded same-sex marriage legally. Ishikawa said, ”It has been incredibly empowering to the Japanese LGBT community to see the growing acceptance overseas of same-sex marriage, I think we’ve got a breakthrough now and I plan to move the conversation (on same-sex marriage) forward.” First two disabled politician from Reiwa Shinsengumi. Reiwa Shinsengumi candidates Yasuhiko Funago, 61, who has Lou Gehrig's disease, and 54-year-old Eiko Kimura, a cerebral palsy sufferer, were elected. This time, Reiwa Shinsengumi’s leader Yamamoto, 44, who came third, failed to retain his seat in the House of Councillors. "Taro Yamamoto may have lost his parliamentary seat, but Reiwa Shinsengumi made a huge advance," said a smiling Yamamoto at a press conference last Monday. The grassroots group now qualifies as a political party eligible for subsidies as it cleared the hurdle of gaining 2 percent or more Nearly 5% of the entire votes cast nationwide in the election. It is the first time since the current electoral system was introduced in 2001 that a group that is not a major political party under relevant election laws has won a parliamentary seat under the proportional representation system. Finally, this is not the joke. But, the name of the party is The Party to Protect the People from NHK. The leader, Takashi Tachibana is the former staff of the NHK. This party has no clear agenda except “Destroying NHK”. Recently, the NHK sued the big hotel market Toyoko-inn due to the unpay of receiving fee. The Tokyo High Court declined the final appeal of Toyoko-inn that ordered to pay 19 billion Yen. What is the receiving fee? If you have the TV in your property, you need to pay the certain amount of the money to the NHK staff who ask for the fee door to door until you pay. The Japan’s Broadcast law require you to pay the money. So, is the NHK worth paying? I don’t think so. Japanese love watching TV more than any other country. Here is a survey that shows average TV consumption by country. Japanese people watch TV 262 minutes per day. America, Poland and Japan is the third on the list. You might saw NHK’s program about this election. It is tiring, boring and useless. They used to have the good News program but not any more. NHK’s morning Opera tv show is really fun kind of like the Full House. (NHK had that show in 1987 with Japanese voice over)You lose the conversation if you don’t watch it before the school or work. As a result, nearly 2% of the voters chose The Party to Protect the People from NHK. The next day after the election, NHK’s prime news didn’t mention the win of the both minority party today I introduced. Only the NHK’s online news site showed “The Party to Protect the People from NHK won the seat” How ironic it is. I don’t really like this party but they had a clear vision”Destroying NHK”. Please change their collapsed journalism.