Topic: 2025-Preserving Free and Fair Elections
Country: Japan
Delegate Name: Sofia Bontomasi
The delegation of Japan believes that free and fair elections should be protected throughout the world. Many countries either don’t have elections, or are ruled over by a sham of a democracy that claims to have free and fair elections, but in reality does not. It is common, however, to see more corruption in countries that do not have free and fair elections. Put shortly, when people sit in office for too long and have no threat of being ousted, they start getting involved in criminal activities usually involving money, and the structure of their government promotes an environment where that is not prohibited by any means.
Japan has been a bicameral representative democracy since the adoption of its constitution in 1947. Furthermore, the Japanese constitution is often cited as being more liberal and democratic than the constitutions of other countries such as the United States. Although some may point out that Japan still has an emperor and royal family, the emperor is simply a ceremonial position with no political power whatsoever, and therefore does not infringe on the democracy that has been instituted. Although democracy did not exactly appear organically in Japan, it is still much loved by its citizens and has proven an effective method of government. That being said, Japan has had some issues with corruption in its government. For example, the most recent scandal involved four past cabinet members who were part of the Abe faction and put millions of dollars into slush funds, not reporting it to the government as the law states; past Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was quick to dismiss all four of them. There have also been many other notable corruption scandals involving Amakudari, Japan’s version of the spoils system, as well as government regulations on business being determined through bribing by Zaibatsu or Japanese business conglomerates.
Going forward, Japan looks to help mitigate corruption both at home and abroad from interfering in democratic governments. Having experienced dealing with corruption in the past and overcoming it in order to become the 16th least corrupt country in the world, Japan has implemented many laws to combat corruption, most notably through implementing the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, the Penal Code, the Bankruptcy Law and the Financial Instruments and Exchange act. Japan would look favourably upon policies that would help protect free and fair elections throughout the world.
