How Japanese voters with disabilities participate in general elections

Abstract

This paper focuses on the voting system for voters with disabilities such as regarding voting in institutions, hospitals, and homes for the elderly, voting by post, proxy voting, and braille voting, and it also examines how the number of voters who can use these systems and procedures has changed, as well as how these changes affect participation in voting and violations of the Public Offices Election Act including interference in an election or electoral fraud. The paper also examines reasons why there have been no salient changes. The results indicate that the number of voters expected to use this system has been increasing, while there has been no increase in violations of the Public Offices Election Act. One reason for this is that the scope of voting was expanded from the viewpoint of “guaranteeing rights to vote,” but the procedures necessary for voting were tightened from the viewpoint of “fairness in elections.”