Japan’s inflation election masks a deeper democratic reckoning

Leaders of eight political parties take part in a debate at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on July 2. (Photo by Marina Inoue) 

Tobias Harris is the founder of Japan Foresight. He is the author of “The Iconoclast: Shinzo Abe and the New Japan.”

Japanese party leaders are focusing heavily on pocketbook issues in their appeals to voters at the start of the campaign for the July 20 upper house elections.