Rather than churn out yet another hand-wringing column about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s impressive ability to annoy progressive intellectuals by repeatedly winning elections, I thought I would write about the significance of something else that happened at last month¡¯s polls: retention elections for seven of Japan¡¯s 15 Supreme Court judges.
It¡¯s a little-known fact that as well as deciding who will represent them in the Diet (and which single-seat losers will join them courtesy of proportional representation), voters are also empowered to choose whether certain judges at Japan¡¯s top court keep their jobs.
Ready? Here is what was significant about those contests: nothing. They take place because of constitutional requirements but became empty formalities long ago.
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