Abstract
A record of 1,504 candidates from 12 registered parties ran in the 2012 House of Representatives (HR) election, more candidates than at any other HR election since 1947.1 Nearly half (730) of these were “first-time” candidates to the HR (Table 9.1). This chapter details the methods used by the major parties to recruit these new candidates, in particular the innovative system of open recruitment (koubo), and examines the differences across parties in terms of candidates’ biographical characteristics, including career and party background, prior political experience, gender, and family ties. The analysis makes use of newspaper articles, internal party recruitment data, personal interviews with politicians and party staff, and complete biographical data on all nominated candidates.
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© 2013 Daniel M. Smith
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Smith, D.M. (2013). Candidate Recruitment for the 2012 Election: New Parties, New Methods … Same Old Pool of Candidates?. In: Pekkanen, R., Reed, S.R., Scheiner, E. (eds) Japan Decides 2012. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137346124_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137346124_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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