Time to vote

Recently it has been rather noisy in these parts. Vans drive around with loudspeakers on their roof, filled with people wearing white gloves who wave at all those folks who are unfortunate enough to be nearby when the van passes. It's election time! Up and down the country the candidates do their rounds in their vans exhorting people to vote for them. No one really seems to be listening but you can't avoid the noise which resonates around the community, sometimes from early morning till into the evening. Tomorrow sees elections for the Upper House. As usual the two main parties are doing battle, but this time a number of the smaller parties are expected to take seats. Prime Ministers come and go here with great regularity. The last elected PM did not last too long and his successor, Mr Kan, is already finding his popularity ratings falling. Politicians are struggling to come up with answers to the big economic and social issues which Japan faces. Whatever the result tomorrow, maybe nothing much will change. But one thing that will certainly change is that the noisy vans with their white-gloved passengers will be off the roads until the next election - unfortunately they seem to come round rather frequently.