Abstract
With the rapid aging of the voting population in Japan has come an increase in the number of persons experiencing handicaps. Obstacles encountered by physically impaired persons at voting sites include inaccessibility to voting booths, difficulties in obtaining braille ballots or other voting arrangements, and a lack of information on elections issues and/or candidates. Visually and hearing impaired voters experience face particular difficulties in fully participating in elections.
I conducted a case study of Tokyo Metropolitan Area and analyzed three problems: accessibility to voting sites; access to alternative ways of casting a ballot; and availability of campaign information.
The United States began to remove physical obstacles to public institutions in the 1960s and passed the “Voting Accessibility for the Elderly and Handicapped Act” in 1984. Based on this act, America provides the elderly and handicapped with such rights as permanent absentee voters status and mail-in ballots. The possibility of increasing the use of electronic systems such as multi-media channels for information dissemination as well as electronic voting is also under study. The National Council on Social Welfare is studying these issues in Japan though new regulations have yet to be fully implemented. I argue that ensuring accessibility to the voting booth represents a worthwhile objective.
