Braille voters puzzled by Japan election candidates with same phonetic name

MATSUE — Two women sharing the same phonetic reading of their names are running for the Shimane No. 1 constituency in the Oct. 31 House of Representatives election, raising concerns among the visually impaired over possible confusion, because their names are spelled the same in Braille.

The two candidates — both named Akiko Kamei — spell their names differently in kanji characters, but the groups of visually impaired people say there’s no way to distinguish between them in Braille voting, as Braille is based on phonograms. The groups are calling for the national government to take steps such as providing examples of how to write the candidates’ names to specifically identify them.

One of the candidates is a 56-year-old former lower house member of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and the other is a first-time independent aged 64. The 56-year-old Kamei filed her candidacy first, followed by former lower house member Hiroyuki Hosoda, 77, of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and then the 64-year-old Kamei.

According to the Shimane prefectural election administration commission, it is the first time in the postwar era for individuals sharing the same reading of their full name to run for a national election in the west Japan prefecture.

Under the Public Offices Election Act, disputed ballots are to be distributed to candidates at a rate proportional to the number of votes the candidates have garnered. A representative of the prefectural election council told the Mainichi Shimbun, “We can’t maintain neutrality if attention is focused on the two candidates with the same name reading. There’s no way we can provide notice (to Braille users) of ways to avoid proportional distribution of votes.”

As part of efforts to deal with the situation, the Shimane Prefecture welfare association for people with visual impairments advises voters with visual impairments in the constituency to use the proxy voting system, in which a person assisting the voter fills in a ballot as instructed, or adding the name of the political party the candidate represents when casting Braille ballots.

The Public Offices Election Act stipulates that ballots containing information other than the candidate’s name are invalid, but that this doesn’t apply to descriptions of the candidate’s occupation, status, address, honorific title, and the like.

Toshiyasu Ogasawara, 67, deputy chairman of the association for the visually impaired, who has weak sight, said, “Is it the right thing for votes to be distributed proportionally without going to the candidates that voters intended to cast their ballots for? I want the national government to disseminate ways to write the candidate’s name properly.”

(Japanese original by Haruno Kosaka, Matsue Bureau)