Equal Eligibility for Election should be Guranteed

     The Japanese Diet today is now in a stifling straitjacket. Japan has
not been contributing to the prosperity of the international society
in particular. In the war in Iraq, Japan is just at the US' beck and call.
Japan is far from a leader of Asian countries. The economic conditions
thrown into confusion. The abduction problem still remains on the
rocks after one year has passed. Scandals have been as rampant as
ever in the Diet. The Japanese Diet seems to be in a wicked labyrinth
that nobody can pass through successfully.
     One of the causes is the problem of eligibility for election. Japanese
law provides that Japanese people of nationality of twenty-two and up
can run for the House of Representatives, and that those who are
thirty and up can run for the House of Councilors. Although there are
six supplementary conditions, which say that a ward of the court, a
person who is sentenced to impresonment, a bribe-taker and so on, are
prohibited to run for an election, the right to run for an election is
guaranteed to all Japanese citizens.
     When you look at members of the Diet, you will be surprised to
know that we have too many nisei-giin (nisei hereditary members
of the Diet). Tarento-giin (members of the Diet who are TV
personalities, sportsmen and sporswomen) and self-supporting
business persons. Directly speaking, there are few people who make an
honest living,although there are many members of assembly who are
living like gamblers, It is the most important point. That is, people 
making an honest living must quit their places of work because of
their companies' own regulations. It is needless to say that public
servantsmust retire according to the law. Such a law does not bind
private companies; on the other hand, private companies like banks,
the mass media and even schools force their employees who want to
run for an election to retire. Private companies independently
established this regulation having no connection with the Japanese
law.
     One poposal can be offered here. When salaried workers run for an
election, their positions should be guranteed. If they were defeated in
an election, they should be reinstated in their former positions. Or
even after they served their four or six-year term, they should
reinstated in their former positions. For all the members of the Diet
like nisei-giin,tarento-giin and shosetsuka-giin (a member of an
assembly whose job is a novelist) are guaranteed their places of work.
Why should only salaried people decide tp gamble a large fortune on
a single run in n election? In fact, the political voices of salaried
people do not easily reach the members of the Diet, because there are
few salaried peopel in the Diet who undrstand their voices. Private
companies' own regulations to prevent salaried people to run for an
election should be abolished promptly.

   Copyright (C) 2003 by Edmond N. Beard