ABSTRACT
Japan’s extensive campaign regulations have largely failed in curbing the type of behavior that they were created to regulate or prevent. Japan has the most restrictive campaign regulations of any advanced industrial democracy, and some of the regulations, such as bans on media advertisements by candidates, work well because the bans are easily monitored for compliance. Other regulations that try to limit campaign behavior that has close counterparts among the everyday interactions of regular citizens do not work well because the bans or regulations are easily evaded. Japan’s extensive campaign regulatory system has the perverse effect of driving consequential campaign behavior underground where it becomes even harder to regulate or monitor.
