A Vote to Light the Lights - 1977, Bringing Politics from Far to Near

A Vote to Light the Lights - 1977, Bringing Politics from Far to Near

This interactive article published in 1977 is a record of a quiet awakening, a "reapproach" to politics in the maturing period of postwar democracy. The author, the narrator, used to disregard voting, believing that "abstention is the sign of free will. However, against a backdrop of political distrust and a sense of social stagnation caused by the Lockheed affair (1976), he gradually began to reconsider his stance. What sprouted from the depths of resignation was a shift toward responsible freedom, symbolized by the phrase, "I have no choice but to get involved because I don't believe in it.

In the late 1970s, Japanese politics was a period of both fatigue over the long administration and the search for a new political force. 1976 saw the arrest of Kakuei Tanaka for the Lockheed affair, and public distrust of politics reached its peak. Meanwhile, the New Liberal Club was formed, led by Seiichi Tagawa and others who had left the Liberal Democratic Party. The New Liberal Club attracted attention as a "third way" that stood between the two major conservative forces, but at the same time it revealed the agony of being caught between ideals and reality. The author's dialogue is also marked by the wavering between hope and anxiety.

In the article, the quiet conversation in a corner of a coffee shop is impressive. At a time when talking about politics was taboo, the young people begin to talk about "politics as an extension of life. There is not an ideological struggle, but a small realization to change their daily lives. The mutterings of "nothing changes when I vote" are overlaid with the response, "I vote to know that nothing will change.

The New Liberty Club's philosophy was to "bring politics back into people's lives," but it was in the conversations of ordinary people like this that this philosophy was delivered. The story of a single vote told in a corner of the city lightened the heavy inertia of postwar politics, if only slightly. This is a record of the modest courage of citizens in the chaotic era of 1977, when politics had lost its credibility and was once again being talked about in their own words.