Is This Vibrant Democracy in Japan, or Has the Circus Come to Town?

Archive: https://archive.is/20240707001203/https://www.nytimes.com/20...

Gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/world/asia/tokyo-goverors...

Should be pretty democratic, they use a method for proportional representation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Hondt_method

The problem may be that the elderly form a voting bloc, which can sway elections. Maybe this profusion of candidates indicates there are a lot of smaller groups that also want representation, but have trouble coordinating to win concessions from the larger voting bloc?

> During a campaign broadcast on NHK, Airi Uchino, the young entrepreneur, removed a striped, button-down shirt to reveal her cleavage in a cream-colored tube top. “I’m not just cute,” she purred, inviting prospective voters to connect with her on Line, Japan’s popular messaging app. “I’m sexy, right?”

P. T. Barnum would be proud. Interestingly, I just learned that he was a politician as well.