Contenders stifle smiles as Japan tiptoes around gender issues
Candidates are largely masked and have been instructed not to smile too much in campaign posters, in deference to pandemic suffering. Aside from that, it’s tough enlisting change as Japan votes.
I don’t have a vote any more; not in Japan nor in Oz. As an Australian, it would seem that once you live overseas for longer than six years, you are booted off the electoral roll. I think this is wrong but don’t get me started.
In Japan, where I am a permanent resident but not a naturalised citizen, I don’t get a vote either. So I am stuck in the middle, voteless. Doesn’t stop me having lots to say about politicians and policy, but, as I will tell anyone who cares to listen, that’s because I care deeply about the country where I was born and the country I call home.
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Melanie Brock is a consultant living and working in Japan.
