Abstract
This study re-examines the extent to which weather conditions affect voter turnout in Japan. For this purpose, we used the turnout rate of the elections to the House of Representatives since 1963 as the dependent variable and analyzed various weather conditions as the independent variables. The results showed that wind speed leads to lower turnout while rainfall does not have a robust effect, nor do temperature, humidity, insolation, etc. Previous typhoons’ negative impacts on voter turnout seemed to come from their gale rather than precipitation. These weather effects became more explicit after the electoral reform in the 1990s, as there was a structural change in Japan’s political participation. This study has implications for news reports and analyses related to weather and elections in Japan.
