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Japanese Lower House Campaigns in Transition: Manifest Changes or Fleeting Fads?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Patrick Koellner
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Abstract

Electioneering for the Japanese Lower House has undergone significant changes in recent years. While voter mobilization strategies still figure prominently in the local-level campaigns of individual candidates, political parties increasingly use voter-chasing strategies at the national level. Such chasing strategies, whose manifestations in Japan have so far included the manifesto and the media-spin approach, target in particular the growing number of independent voters. The concurrence of elements of continuity and change in electioneering has led to a “hybridization” of Lower House election campaigns. The article examines this phenomenon in the light of newer conceptual and theoretical approaches to electoral politics in democratic settings.

Keywords

election campaigningmixed-member electoral systemvoter targetingvoter mobilizationvoter chasingmanifestosJapan
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 121 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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