Free noodles offered as Japan wrestles with low youth turnout for elections

theguardian.com:

A major Japanese ramen chain is offering free noodles to young people ahead of Sunday’s upper house elections, amid widespread concern that the nation’s disaffected youth will not bother turning out to vote.

Ippudo, which operates 50 ramen shops across the country, is offering endless free noodle refills for a fortnight from election day on Sunday until 24 June, the Mainichi Shimbun said, provided they can show proof that they have voted.

Younger Japanese routinely complain that politicians are more interested in appealing to the country’s huge bloc of older voters, and point to the low number of younger MPs in both houses of parliament.

“Politicians view elderly people, whose turnout is high, like important customers from whom they can win votes,” said Hiroshi Yoshida, a professor of the economics of ageing at Tohoku University. “On the other hand, young people are like occasional customers, so are less important …. so policies favoured by the elderly inevitably get prioritised.”

An Ippudo spokesperson told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said it hoped their offer would “create an opportunity for people to cast their vote, even if voting hasn’t become a habit for them”.

Turnout among younger voters is consistently low, and few believe this weekend’s election will be an exception.

In last October’s elections for the more powerful lower house, just 36% of those in their 20s voted in single-seat constituencies – making them the least politically engaged group – according to the internal affairs ministry.

Those aged 18 and 19, who were given the vote in 2016, were slightly more active, with 43.2% turning out to vote. The turnout among people in their 20s has remained below 50% for the past three decades, the ministry said.

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