Breaking News Backgrounder #8 – Japan’s General Elections
The world’s third largest economy and a key geopolitical actor had elections last month, but beyond a simple headline or two, they got little attention in the west. This is in stark contract to recent elections in Germany, which was were covered by most foreign media and even received attention on cable TV news.
Why? Part of it was the seeming inevitability of a victory by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the short campaign period. But it also reflects a longstanding bias in reporting, in which elections in Asia are deemed less important than those in western countries. Japan’s elections follows undercovered races in South Korea, Indonesia, India in recent years, and likely is a sign of things to come next year in the Philippines.
So in this Backgrounder, I highlight in-depth stories from local and regional publications on the elections, the impact of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s victory, and what it means for the country and Asia as a whole.
Breaking News Backgrounders are subscriber-only issues of Asia Undercovered, focused on giving readers contextual understanding of a breaking news story beyond the headlines and simplistic, pundit takes.