Controlled Freedom of Juvenile Voters

It must be the reluctance of Japanese government to vest voting right on young citizens. Mainichi Shimbun reported that some of prefectural governments were considering requirement of in-advance reporting for high school students’ political activities after school. Bureaucracy could not imagine that setting limitation would create another political distortion. Here’s a conclusion: High school students do not have full-fledged freedom of thought.

According to the research of Mainichi, six prefectural governments, Miyagi, Ibaraki, Toyama, Fukui, Aichi and Mie, and three government-decreed cities, Sendai, Yokohama and Kobe, were contemplating whether they would ask report of their students participating in political assembly or demonstration. Other ten prefectures and one government-decreed city answered to query of Mainichi that they would leave the decision to each high school principal.

Constitution of Japan guarantees all citizens freedom of thought, which undoubtedly includes political assembly or demonstration. Responsibility on students’ activities after school is basically left to their parents, not teachers. The reason why schools are trying to intervene students’ activities is based on a guidance national government has delivered.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in October issued a notification on political activities of high school students out of their school to all local governments on October. That was basically a guidance to balance freedom of political activity and neutrality of education. “Political activities of high school students is not unlimitedly allowed, but laid under necessary and rational restriction,” said the notification.

The Diet passed new law to vest voting right on the people as young as at eighteen and nineteen years old. But, once the intervention of government creates two kinds of votes, vote with guidance of government and without. Does a vote with governmental guidance have the same value as another vote completely free from the intervention?

This is a fundamental question on freedom, equality under law or dignity of individual.

If the government did not want young people to have independent political thought, it must not allow them voting right. If Japanese bureaucracy wanted to achieve good reputation of advanced democracy from the world, stop intervention. Oppressing human rights and implementing democracy do not stand together.