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Paper short abstract

Japan’s early experiments with voting machines around 1900 were not mere imitations of Western models but attempts to apply science and technology to the reform and design of electoral system. Led by legislative bureaucrats, they show a deliberate use of technology in shaping political institutions.

Paper long abstract

This article examines the historical relationship between voting technology and electoral systems by focusing on the fact that, at the relatively early stage of the 1910s, a highly innovative voting machine was conceived in modern Japan. In Europe and the United States, voting machines were generally employed as supplementary devices within existing electoral systems, primarily to ensure ballot secrecy and prevent electoral fraud. In Japan, by contrast, parliamentary legal bureaucrats seeking to establish a proportional electoral system, particularly STV, played a leading role in conceiving the voting machine as a means of realizing institutional reform. This article identifies three conditions that made such an approach possible: (1) the rise of a community of engineering experts and the formation of connections between them and parliamentary legal bureaucrats; (2) the “Western” orientation inherited by the Legislation Bureau from the Ministry of Public Works and the emergence of generalist legal bureaucrats; and (3) the influence of contemporary developments in electoral reform in Britain. It further argues that this attempt to integrate institutional design with technological development offers important insights for contemporary debates over electoral reform and the role of voting technology.

The full paper is available for download at the following URL.

https://researchmap.jp/jeyongsohn/presentations/52957160