Election No. 10

So intricate are Japan's election laws that a candidate for the Diet must wade through a 200-page paperback manual of dos and don'ts before he dares to make a speech. If he campaigns by car, he is limited to a "short, simple appeal" such as "Please vote for me." If he campaigns by sea or river, he is restricted to one boat. He may make only 60 speeches during the three-week campaign, no more than three of them on the radio. At his campaign headquarters he may serve nothing stronger than "tea and light cookies." Not much of a diet for the Diet, but it seems to be more than adequate for the nation's 63,500,000 qualified voters (out of a population of 98 million). Last week, as Japan neared its tenth election since World War II, they were getting some fresh food for thought.

When conservative Premier Eisaku Sato dissolved the Diet last December, it appeared that the major issue in the campaign would be the charges of corruption that had wreathed his Cabinet in "Black Mist." Not so. Japan's newspapers have been dominated--and the public mind captured--by the chaotic events next door in Red China. Campaigning from snowy northern Honshu to sunny Shikoku, Sato was quick to take advantage of the public preoccupation. "We must never become like our neighbor," Sato cried in village after village last week. "Over there, there's no freedom, and without freedom, how could one find life worth living?" Sato's suggestion: "You must never, never vote for such parties as Socialists or Communists." Almost invariably, the crowds cried: "Sato banzai!" All this should have unnerved Socialist Leader Kozon Sasaki, whose 141 lower-house members represent Japan's second largest party. But he merely countered with his standard attacks on the U.S. and routine demands for Japanese neutrality, with plenty of references to corruption thrown in. More exciting to outsiders was the debut on the national scene of Komeito, the Clean Government Party, which is the political arm of the militant Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect. Competing for 32 seats, Komeito's candidates were young and energetic, and observers gave them a good chance to win at least 27 of their contests. The election-eve guess was that Sato and his Liberal Democratic Party would be returned to power but could take slight losses from their high of 294 seats in the last legislature.

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