A famous Japanese ramen restaurant is providing free noodles to young people ahead of Sunday’s upper house elections, despite widespread worry that the nation’s disenchanted youth may not bother voting. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Ippudo, which has 50 ramen cafes around the country, is providing unlimited free noodle refills for a fortnight from election day on Sunday until June 24, provided customers can produce proof of voting. Younger Japanese frequently argue that politicians are more interested in appealing to the country’s massive bloc of elderly voters, citing the low number of younger MPs in both chambers of parliament.
According to The Guardian, Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor of the economics of ageing at Tohoku University, ‘Politicians consider elderly people, whose turnout is high, as key consumers from whom they can acquire votes’. On the other hand, because young people are like infrequent consumers, they are less essential…. measures favored by the elderly are eventually prioritized.
According to an opinion survey published on Monday, Japan’s ruling coalition is on track to win an upper house election on July 10, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s ruling party likely to increase the number of seats it holds on its own. There are 125 seats up for grabs, with 63 constituting a simple majority.
According to a Nikkei business daily survey conducted over the weekend, Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is forecast to win approximately 60 seats on its own, up from the 55 seats it now possesses. The Nikkei poll findings contradict recent public opinion polls, which suggest that support for his administration is dwindling as a result of rising prices and increasing gasoline expenses in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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