|
On August 5, Yukihisa Fujita, Vice Director General of the DPJ International Department, visited New York City in the United States, to encourage increased voter turnout by Japanese nationals living overseas. Fujita held discussions with Hayahiko Takase, President of Japanese Overseas Voters LA, Michiyo Noda, Executive Director of the Japanese American Association of New York, and Ryoichi Miura, Publisher of weekly newspaper Shukan New York Seikatsu. Following this, he visited New York’s 42nd Street, which boasts a high concentration of Japanese restaurants, to hand out copies of the DPJ Manifesto to passing Japanese and encourage increased participation in the election by overseas Japanese voters.
The DPJ has consistently worked toward raising the polling rate amongst Japanese voters overseas, dispatching member of the House of Representatives Tetsundo Iwakuni and member of the House of Councillors Susumu Yanase (then Director General of the International Department) to Los Angeles prior to the 2000 general election, and member of the House of Representatives Chinami Nishimura, again to Los Angeles, prior to the 2007 House of Councillors election.
Considering that this is the first general election in which overseas voters will be able to cast their vote for candidates standing in single-seat constituencies, rather than just for candidates running in the proportional representation constituencies, it is important to raise the awareness of overseas voters, said to amount to 700, 000 people.
When handing out copies of the Manifesto to passing Japanese, Fujita found that most of them were aware that it was possible to vote from overseas, but there were also some who had not realised that it was necessary to register in advance in order to vote in the single-seat constituencies, and who were disappointed to discover that there was not sufficient time remaining before polling day for them to do so.
Moreover, overseas voting has to be completed by the deadlines established by the various Japanese diplomatic missions overseas. In the case of the Japanese Consulate in New York City, this means that the voting period is between August 19 and August 23.
Fujita heard criticisms pointing out this meant that even if Japanese had registered to vote overseas and obtained the necessary certification, they would have to vote before they had obtained sufficient information about the background and policies of the various candidates.
|
.jpg)
.jpg)