TOKYO — In Japan, the age for people being most likely to be elected as legislators is 30: This was the conclusion presented by University of Tokyo assistant professor Hiroharu Saito to an experimental online survey with fictitious candidates this March. And yet, that is the minimum age to enter one of the two houses of the country’s National Diet.

In the experiment, candidates were first listed with a variety of ages and profiles, such as company employees and political secretaries. After they were randomly paired, 2,511 survey company registrants between the ages of 18 and 79 were asked which would make a better representative.

Adding up the responses, the age of 30 turned out to be the most popular pick. In a survey of 1,384 people aged 18 to 29, 23- and 25-year-old candidates fared just as well.

In reality, there is a minimum age of 25 to run for the House of Representatives and local assemblies, and 30 to join the House of Councillors, according to the Public Offices Election Act.

According to Kyodo News, the average voting age of candidates for nine ruling bloc and opposition parties in the upcoming lower house election is 53.9. While the national age was lowered in 2016 from 20 to 18, the age threshold for candidacy in the chamber has remained the same since 1945. It remains challenging for young people to find a voice to represent them.

Lawsuit to lower age of candidacy

“It’s said that ‘young people are losing interest in politics,’ but it’s natural to lack interest in a forum where only topics detached from them are discussed. To take an extreme example, can I, in my 20s, speak on behalf of first graders?” questioned 24-year-old Chiba Prefecture resident Suzuka Nakamura. Aware of a problematic imbalance in political decision-makers that skews toward the middle-aged and elderly, the then fourth-year university student went to court in the summer of 2023 demanding that the age of eligibility for political candidacy be lowered. The case is currently being reviewed in the Tokyo District Court.

From the start, Nakamura has not had any political aspirations. However, there is a reason she and five allies of the same generation took the case to court.

Upon joining a project that sought to lower the eligibility age, she and her allies encountered no head-on opposition from politicians when lobbying. In fact, the cause was taken up as an election pledge by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)’s Taro Kono in his bid for the party presidency last month, and has been incorporated into the pledges of one or more political parties campaigning for the Oct. 27 general election.

“However, it doesn’t rise to the top as a policy priority. I think that’s what’s holding it back. If that’s the case, we need to go through the judiciary,” Nakamura had thought.

Neglected due to age

Nagasaki Prefecture-born Nakamura is the grandchild of a “hibakusha” atomic bombing survivor. Since high school, she has campaigned for the abolishment of nuclear weapons both in Japan and abroad. She is also currently a representative for a group seeking nuclear abolition. While she was focusing on passing down the experiences of A-bomb survivors, she had a bitter experience at the age of 20 when she began to approach the world of politics.

“What do young people know?” This was the harsh response over the phone from a then veteran member of the Diet when Nakamura asked for a face-to-face meeting. Even though she was of voting age and could express her will at the ballot box, she felt neglected due to her youth.

“I could not yet become a politician, but when attempting to convey the policies I aimed to achieve, I was blocked from the means to do so,” Nakamura said, recalling a sense of distrust.

Before starting the lawsuit, one of Nakamura’s allies tried to run for the prefectural governor’s office. Since they were not yet at or over the minimum candidacy age of 30, their application was, as expected, not accepted. However, when news of this broke , they became the target of criticism online, and one or more other allies who were supposed to continue the fight declined to join the lawsuit.

While keenly aware of the difficulty of raising one’s voice, Nakamura recalled thinking, “We have to go this far or young people’s voices won’t be heard.”

She hopes to create a society where young people can choose to become politicians to make things better for the next generation, and commented, “Whether or not a person is fit to be a politician should be decided in an election. I think it is inappropriate to prevent this at the institutional level.”

(Japanese original by Kayo Mukuda, Tokyo City News Department)