Joke Candidates: Humour in the British and Japanese Elections of 2017

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  • Reader Rosemary
    Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Global Society, Kyushu University

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Abstract

In 2017 both Britain and Japan called snap elections, both of which were won by the Prime Minister who had called them. While there are obviously some differences, there are also some similarities between the two political systems. One of these differences appears to be in the use of humour during election campaigns, namely the manner in which some seats in British elections are contested by joke candidates in addition to serious ones, whereas this practice appears to be less common in Japan. As such, this paper looks at the candidates that contested the seats of Theresa May and Abe Shinzo, the Prime Ministers, in the 2017 elections, with particular focus on those that can be regarded as being joke candidates. While those competing for Shinzo Abe’s seat tended to be serious candidates, a number of those contesting Theresa May’s seat did so under the guise of costumes and assumed names.

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  • 地球社会統合科学研究

    地球社会統合科学研究 10 45-53, 2019-02-20

    Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Global Society, Kyushu University

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