3RD LD: Voter turnout 2nd lowest at less than 62.5%

Japan Policy & Politics, July 3, 2000

TOKYO, June 26 Kyodo

Voter turnout in Sunday's House of Representatives general election was 62.49% for single-seat constituencies and 62.45% for the proportional representation section, the Home Affairs Ministry said Monday.

The turnout was the second lowest on record for a lower house election, exceeding only the 59.65% and 59.62% figures recorded in the previous general election, held in 1996, the ministry said.

The figure for the July 1993 general election, when voters chose lower house members from multiple-seat constituencies, was 67.26%.

The discrepancies in the turnout figures for the two sections of Sunday's election probably resulted from accidental mix-ups of single-seat and proportional representation ballots at some polling stations.

The number of eligible voters on Sunday totaled 100,433,798, surpassing the 100 million mark for the first time, according to the ministry. A total of 62,764,239 people -- 30,202,110 men and 32,562,129 women -- voted in the single-seat constituency section.

An additional 58,524 overseas Japanese nationals registered to vote in the election.

It was the first national election in which overseas voters were allowed to cast ballots -- but only in the proportional representation section.

The law was revised in April 1998 to enable Japanese living abroad to vote in national elections.

Sunday's low turnout came despite a June 1998 revision of the Public Offices Election Law under which polling stations stayed open for two hours longer than in the past, until 8 p.m. Conditions for absentee voting were also eased.

Younger voters apparently stayed at home, failing to find any clear points at issue during the election, analysts said.

By gender, 62.02% of male voters turned out to vote in the single-seat district section, up 2.99 percentage points from 1996, while 62.94% of women did so, up from 60.23% in the previous election, the council said.

By prefecture, Shimane Prefecture in western Japan had the highest turnout at 77.18%, followed by Tottori, also in western Japan, and Oita on the southwestern main island of Kyushu.

The lowest turnout was recorded in Osaka Prefecture, with 55.69% of voters casting ballots, followed by Chiba and Saitama, both adjacent to Tokyo.

In Ishikawa, Mie and Ehime prefectures, where by-elections for House of Councillor seats were also held Sunday, the turnout ranged from 60.93% to 68.73%, council officials said.

A new electoral system introduced in 1996 combined 300 single-seat districts with 200 seats in 11 proportional representation blocs. The number of proportional representation seats was cut by 20 for the latest poll.