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The disproportionate weight of rural voters in Japan gives sparsely populated parts of the country more representation — and more government largess — than urban areas, perpetuating what critics call an unfair system. The mountain village of Chizu, for example, in western Japan, has long been in decline. Its population has dwindled to 6,600 people, close to half of them elderly. The once-dominant forestry industry has shriveled, and a year-end fair is no longer held. Yet last year, backed by a large dollop of central government funding, the village built a 12,000-square-foot library, erected a new nursery school in 2017 and construction workers constantly upgrade a sparsely traveled highway into the village. As voters prepare to select members of Parliament in a national election on Sunday, the residents of Chizu are acutely cognizant of the forces behind this largess. In Japan, rural votes count for more than urban ones, giving less-populated areas like Chizu a disproportionately large number of seats in Parliament, and more chances to register their concerns with national politicians. This structure plays to the advantage of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan for all but four years since 1955. The party is expected to eke out a majority in the parliamentary election, partly on the strength of support from the rural areas showered with taxpayer money. In some ways, the power of Japan’s rural population parallels the political landscape in the U.S., where each state has two senators regardless of population size — giving the Republican Party an outsize advantage because of its dominance of rural states. Tap the link in our bio to see more from Chizu and to read about how rural votes in Japan count more than those in big cities. Photos by @shihofukada

October 30, 2021