E-voting in Japan: A developing case?

This paper aims to introduce the current situation of electronic voting (e-voting) in Japan and discuss its challenges. E-voting has gradually spread in Japan. It has been used a total of twenty times by ten local governments since it was first introduced in 2002. Under the current law, e-voting can be used only for the election of the head of local government or council members. The paper first introduces the actual state of e-voting in Japan. Then the current status and challenges of the electronic voting system are analyzed based on data obtained from the experiences of Japanese cases. Finally, the paper discusses what challenges the Japanese e-voting has, and what could be given as prescriptions for them. 1 Current Status of E-voting in Japan In 2002, the first electronic voting (e-voting) was realized in Japan. Since then, ten local governments conducted a total of twenty cases of e-voting. In Japan, after “e-Japan Strategy,” which aims to build an electronic government (e-government), was published in January 2001 many efforts toward an electronic government (e-democracy) and electronic democracy have been attempted. E-voting can be considered within this trend. This paper aims to introduce the current status of e-voting in Japan and to discuss its challenges. The paper first introduces the actual state of e-voting in Japan. Then the current status and challenges of the electronic voting system are analyzed based on data obtained from experiences of Japanese cases. Finally, the paper discusses what challenges Japanese e-voting has, and what could be given as prescriptions for them. In Japan, the “Act on Special Provisions Concerning Voting Method by Means of 1 http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/it2/kettei/010122honbun.html 2 See [An07], [Ha99], [Ho08], [Kh09], and [No01]. 3 The concept of “electronic democracy” is vague and it has various meanings. See [Fe00], [Gi04, [Ha99], [Hi98], [Iw05], [To98], and [Ts98]. 4 http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/it2/index.html 5 See [Iw04] and [Iw09].