Japanese expats in greater N.Y. area cast ballots for election

Japan Policy & Politics, July 6, 2004

NEW YORK, July 4 Kyodo

A Japanese businessman and his wife in New Jersey traveled to New York City on Sunday to cast their ballots for the July 11 House of Councillors election, taking advantage of relaxed election rules for expatriates.

The businessman from Tokyo's Suginami Ward, identifying himself only as Ueno, said he has been in the United States for three years but this is the first time he has cast his ballot in person.

''It would have been nicer if the ballot boxes were at locations like Mitsuwa,'' he said, referring to the giant supermarket in Edgewater, New Jersey.

But he said he and his wife were happy to vote in person instead of postal balloting which has been available for national elections after May 2000, following a revision to the election law in 1998.

The upper house election is the first national poll in which Japanese voters living abroad for extended periods can either cast their ballots by mail or go to the polling stations at Japanese consulates general around the world.

Another Japanese man said, after casting his ballot at the Consulate General in the UBS Building adjacent to the famous Waldorf-Astoria hotel, ''It's convenient. I did not have to wait.''

The man, who identified himself only as an employee of a Japanese company, said he has lived in the United States for 13 years and his life there ''has raised my interest in politics in Japan.''

''It was only natural that I was not interested in politics while I was in Japan,'' he said, adding he chose to cast his ballot ''because I can vote here even at the last minute.''

To vote in Manhattan, a voter has to fill out an application form for a ballot paper and an envelope addressed to the election administration commission of his or her city, ward, town or village. A passport and an overseas voter card would have to be submitted and the ballot would be cast and sealed.

Under the present election law, expats can vote only for the proportional representation segments of both houses of the Diet.

Japanese diplomat Takato Furutachi said the Consulate General made extra efforts to ensure trouble-free balloting at the consulate by mobilizing 32 people in the morning and in the afternoon during a 10-day voting period from June 25 to Sunday.

During that time, he said 837 out of 3,497 registered Japanese voters in the Greater New York area cast their ballots at the Consulate General. Balloting ran from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. without lunch breaks.