Reclaim Your Right to Vote in this Centennial Year

このページを日本語で読む

May 2025 marks 100 years since the promulgation of the Universal Manhood Suffrage Act. That law abolished tax payment requirements for voting. It gave all males over the age of 25 the right to vote in elections for the House of Representatives.

Elections are the bedrock of democracy. Voters entrust the creation of laws, administration, and other public duties to Diet members, prefectural assembly members, and heads of local governments that they have elected. We should take this centenary as an opportunity to remind ourselves of the importance of voting.

A Long Road to Universal Suffrage

The first election for the House of Representatives of the Diet took place in 1890. Its main role at that time was to decide the government's budget. Also, voting rights were initially limited to men aged 25 and over who paid at least ￥15 yen annually in direct national taxes.

Eligible voters accounted for only 1% of Japan's total population at the time. However, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, the idea became widespread that it was wrong for men who risked their lives to protect their country not to have a say in politics.

Then, in the Taisho era (1912-26), a national movement calling for universal suffrage arose. The result was that on May 5, 1925, the Universal Manhood Suffrage Act was promulgated, abolishing the tax payment requirement.

After World War II ended, in December 1945, the Act was revised to give men and women over the age of 20 the right to vote. The year 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of that momentous event.

Over the last century, the ratio of eligible voters to the total population has also risen steadily. Initially merely 1%, the ratio rose to about 20% with the promulgation of the Universal Manhood Suffrage Law in 1925. It expanded further to about 50% in 1945 with the postwar changes. Then, in 2016, the minimum voting age was lowered to 18 years old. As a result, the proportion of voters in the total population of Japanese citizens now stands at over 80%.

*Voters at a polling station in Setagaya Ward inTokyo. (©Sankei by Kenji Suzuki）*

Reclaim Your Right by Voting

What is unfortunate is that even though the right to vote has been expanded, voter turnout has been plummeting. The turnout rate for the 1946 House of Representatives election was 72.08%. However, it was only 53.85% for the 2024 House of Representatives election.

This means that nearly one out of every two eligible voters has abandoned their right to vote. That is a problem for an avowedly democratic nation.

There are many countries, such as Belgium and Australia, where voting is compulsory, and those who do not vote are penalized. Voter turnout in these countries is close to 90%. Ideally, however, people should be motivated to vote and become involved in politics on their own.

For better or worse, politics acts as a mirror for a nation. If people are unhappy with political parties and politicians, they should use their votes to make that clear. Complaints by people who did not exercise their right to vote lack persuasiveness.

The late Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial (now Panasonic), once wrote the following warning about the public becoming bystanders in politics. He published it in the magazine PHP, which he also founded. He said: