Comments on: The law of unintended consequences http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/the-law-of-unintended-consequences/ Japan from the inside out Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:32:13 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: ampontan http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/the-law-of-unintended-consequences/#comment-13558 ampontan Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:37:21 +0000 http://ampontan.wordpress.com/?p=784#comment-13558 BBB: Thanks for the note. I've commented here before that the Japanese media is a bit like reading Rashomon. Except that not all the facts are presented. I never saw anywhere a list of the other specific proposals the DPJ tried to attach to the referendum bill that the LDP wouldn't go for. Maybe it got printed somewhere, but I sure didn't see it. Of course, I could always call up the DPJ and ask, but that's the sort of thing a newspaper should be doing. BBB: Thanks for the note.

I’ve commented here before that the Japanese media is a bit like reading Rashomon. Except that not all the facts are presented.

I never saw anywhere a list of the other specific proposals the DPJ tried to attach to the referendum bill that the LDP wouldn’t go for. Maybe it got printed somewhere, but I sure didn’t see it.

Of course, I could always call up the DPJ and ask, but that’s the sort of thing a newspaper should be doing.

]]> By: bingobangoboy http://ampontan.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/the-law-of-unintended-consequences/#comment-13539 bingobangoboy Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:37:59 +0000 http://ampontan.wordpress.com/?p=784#comment-13539 I slight correction; the doctor mentions the drinking age rather than the voting age. Lowering the age of majority across the board (drinking/smoking, voting, entering contracts, gambling, etc) would certainly be complicated, as your linked articles make clear. I haven't studied this issue in detail, but as far as I can decipher, the complications are mostly the result of politicking. There would be no problem, I believe, in setting only the referendum voting age at 18 as the DPJ wants, without affecting other age limits. But the LDP would prefer the age be 20 (probably, they're more concerned about the precedent than referenda specifically). So they offered to study the possibility of an across-the-board revision of the legal age... on the condition that the referendum voting age wouldn't *really* be 18 unless the study recommended so. Which I assume it won't. Needlessly complicated reportage? Yes. Kyodo: "The legal age is defined by the Civil Code and determines when a person can legally start drinking alcohol or smoke, among other things." Yomiuri: "the Public Offices Election Law and other laws that specifically set an age limit of 20, as for drinking and smoking, will not change even if the Civil Code is altered." I don't think most people would have a huge problem with 18-year olds voting in referenda, but tie it in with the drinking age, and many people will be wary. I slight correction; the doctor mentions the drinking age rather than the voting age.
Lowering the age of majority across the board (drinking/smoking, voting, entering contracts, gambling, etc) would certainly be complicated, as your linked articles make clear. I haven’t studied this issue in detail, but as far as I can decipher, the complications are mostly the result of politicking. There would be no problem, I believe, in setting only the referendum voting age at 18 as the DPJ wants, without affecting other age limits. But the LDP would prefer the age be 20 (probably, they’re more concerned about the precedent than referenda specifically). So they offered to study the possibility of an across-the-board revision of the legal age… on the condition that the referendum voting age wouldn’t *really* be 18 unless the study recommended so. Which I assume it won’t.
Needlessly complicated reportage? Yes.
Kyodo: “The legal age is defined by the Civil Code and determines when a person can legally start drinking alcohol or smoke, among other things.”
Yomiuri: “the Public Offices Election Law and other laws that specifically set an age limit of 20, as for drinking and smoking, will not change even if the Civil Code is altered.”
I don’t think most people would have a huge problem with 18-year olds voting in referenda, but tie it in with the drinking age, and many people will be wary.

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