~~~~~~~~~


WHAT'S A MAJORITY GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Well the results of the Mayoral Recall are in, and the turnout was a remarkable 72% of eligible voters (usually, voter turnout in Japan is shockingly low, either causing or resulting from Japan's not really being a democracy). The ballot (as a long-term, tax-paying resident I couldn't vote, but I could see and hear) had all the logic of the ones that got Dubya elected in Florida. On one side it said "FOR," with an empty box below it in which the voter had to CORRECTLY hand-write the Mayor's name. On the other side, above another box it said "AGAINST." But the "FOR" didn't mean "for the Mayor," as the arrangement implied; it meant "for recall," which it didn't say; and AGAINST didn't mean against the mayor; it meant "against recall." Despite that confusion, and despite disqualification of any ballot with the Mayor's name written incorrectly, the vote was 6979 for recall and 5180 against. The Mayor has been recalled. Now he has to decide whether he will dissolve the City Council and call for new elections all around, or resign and run (or not) in a new mayoral election. Though 57.4% of the voters of Shiga Township voted to recall the Mayor, the Prefectural Governor immediately made a statement to the effect that even if the Mayor is ultimately voted out of office, that will not change the status of the incinerator plan (the reason the Mayor was recalled). Thus, as the battle enters a larger arena it appears more likely that Japan is not a democracy. I think a lot of political lowbrows all around the world got a new lease on life when they saw how even somebody like Dubya (who just got back from another month's vacation on his ranch) could get crowbarred into office.