Can the Democratic Party of Japan Come to the Power?
− Perspective on Japanese Election −

The AJS held its monthly luncheon at Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on May 22nd. The guest speaker was Mr. Douglas Turner, American political consultant as well as communications specialist and President & CEO, DW Turner, Inc. which is ranked among the top 250 public relations firms in the United States. From 2005 through 2006, he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow in Japan and spent 18 months studying political campaigns and elections in Japan. Mr. Turner discussed Japanese election technology, campaign methodology and political communications, and what those issues mean for Japanese domestic politics and Japan’s relationship with the U.S.

When he came to Japan for the first time in 2003, Mr. Turner realized Japanese political campaign was apart from anywhere in the world. It was not very competitive in many ways, he said. “What makes a country truly democratic is a competitive nature of its election.” He revealed that even some of the LDP Diet members had told him they did not actually believe Japan is a democratic country. This observation of Japanese politics led him to study why the minority party, that is, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) here, had kept losing.

“There are three main barriers the DPJ has,” Mr. Turner pointed out. 1. The regulatory system that governs the election 2. Structure of the minority party 3. Lack of campaign skills its members and consultants have.

First, Rules in Japanese political elections are very restrictive. “Some of the most restrictive I have seen anywhere. Even the kind of paste for the posters is regulated.” Mr. Turner noted that the restrictions benefit incumbent organizations while they inhibit minority parties from finding a way to reach voters directly. In the U.S., creating restrictions on candidates or campaigns on how they can communicate with voters or the messages they can use would be argued as a violation of the freedom of speech. If the U.S. changes the low, it would be to create more avenues for politicians and candidates to communicate with people, Mr. Turner stressed. Here is a real challenge for the candidates to overcome, he said. Allowing the candidate to use a manifest in campaigns, certain sets of policy they promise before elections, is a good move forward to find direct contact with voters and talk about specific issues, he added.

Secondly, Mr. Turner continued, Japanese political parties are extraordinarily bureaucratic organizations which inhibit creative and independent political activities in the party, making their move slow. In addition, because committees within a party spend not much energy communicating one another, they have no coordinated message or cohesive political strategy to carry out a strong political campaign.

The third point, lack of campaign skill, is related to the lack of political expertise in Japan. In the U.S., Mr. Turner said, “There are thousands of people in agents or companies, ‘like me’, who specialize in political campaigning and help candidates to win.” This is what makes campaigns very interesting, very competitive. Japanese political parties do not have people working within a party structure who have excellent experience in running campaigns. The parties need to develop political experts, operatives who know how to put things together. Mr. Turner stressed this point strongly.

In relation to the Upper House election scheduled in July, he said that the younger members of the DPJ have different positions of how things should be, which might be a hope. He emphasized, “A political party is designed and built to provide infrastructure for the members to acquire political power. Unless they win, it doesn’t matter if they have the best idea because they will not have the opportunity to push it. So they need to win to push out the best idea.”

Mr. Turner introduced specific tactics to win in the election. In urban areas there are a vast population of floating voters who are not associated with either party. The parties need to know where they can reach those greater number of voters. Also they have to find the way to explain substantial political issues to the regular people. The candidates will have a better opportunity to win if they find the right group of the people to talk specific issues to, for example, about education to mothers, health care and retirement to the elderly, or tax to the working people.

Japanese people don’t feel that politics can do much for them, Mr. Turner noted. There seems to be some significant dissatisfaction in the belief in getting involved in any political process for beneficial result. This leads to the lack of interest in the candidates or campaign. Now, however, the prospect of change in this country is very positively seen in political respect, he said. The minority parties have unique opportunity to change the way. If they think about the good way to explain substance of issues, finding the right people to talk to, they will win, Mr. Turner affirmed.

“Even if the DPJ loses in the Upper House election,” he continued to encourage younger members of the DPJ, “Don’t leave the party which has a decade investing and creating competitive party system. Pour your energy to reinvent yourself within the party,” Mr. Turner added that even if the DPJ wins, there would be no significant change in the U.S. because Japanese politicians have very similar perspectives on foreign policies. This remark sounded very suggestive.

Finally, he talked about the U.S. presidential campaign briefly. Anything can happen, he said, because there is so much time between now and the first caucus. It will be interesting to see what will happen. With this remark, Mr. Turner concluded his speech.