The Diet has enacted a law requesting a constitutional amendment to the national referendum laws regarding the legal voting age in Japan. The amendment, passed by the upper house on Friday and by the lower house in May, will bring the legal voting age from 20 to 18 years of age from 2018.
The ruling Liberal-Democratic Party, its coalition partner New Komeito Party, the Democratic Party of Japan, Japan Restoration Party, Your Party, Yui no To, and the People's Life Party all participated in submitting the bill. The New Renaissance Party also gave its support in the upper house.
When the bill was submitted to the Diet, NHK polled people on the street to see what they thought. Many older people expressed concern that 18 might be too young to understand politics, while some teenagers polled expressed indifference in the political process.
A previous referendum law was enacted in 2007 to remedy the fact that no detailed process existed in order to hold national referendums, but that amendment did not touch upon the voting age.
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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Jan Claudius Weirauch
Young people won't vote for there grand grand parents, generally a good move but the people affected won't care.
FightingViking
When are Permanent Residents going to be allowed to vote ? (Not that there's anybody I'd want to vote for...)
CrazyJoe
Age 18 only applies to the national referendum laws. You still have to be 20 to vote in national and local elections.
M3M3M3
Now all they need is to form the 'Abe Youth' and a constitutional amendment is within reach.
toshiko
National means they can vote for Constitutional Amendment proposals. I wonder if they love to vote for Article 9 amendment?
warispeace
This makes no sense since the voting age for elections is still 20, unless you know that what is behind the move is Abe's neo-nationalist push to eliminate Article 9 of the constitution and change the self-defence force into an aggressive army.
toshiko
@warispeace: If they wait until 2018 then 2022 will be targetted. Sooner legislation, sooner voting, Abe and Abe;s aides are not interested in Article 9 discussion as they want to reinterpret constitution -unlike stubborn LDP right wing
So, Abe is more interested in getting youngsters to LDP supporters. Remind you, unlike Aso, Abe does not have big mouth,
ThonTaddeo
This is pretty tough luck if you're a kid born in 1999. In 2018, everyone older than you, and people one year younger than you, but not you, will be able to vote.
globalwatcher
I disagree. Look, they love to vote for stupid AKB48,
toshiko
@globalwatcherJUN. 16, 2014 - 06:52AM JST Young people won't vote for there grand grand parents, generally a good move but the people affected won't care.
I disagree. Look, they love to vote for stupid AKB48,
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When did they vote for AKB48? They haven't got voting right yet. do they? This new law has';t been reacted yet.