Japan: Election No. 10

So intricate are Japan's election laws that a candidate for the Diet must wade through a 200-page paperback manual of dos and don'ts before he dares to make a speech. If he campaigns by car, he is limited to a "short, simple appeal" such as "Please vote for me." If he campaigns by sea or river, he is restricted to one boat. He may make only 60 speeches during the three-week campaign, no more than three of them on the radio. At his campaign headquarters he may serve nothing stronger than "tea and...