If e-voting is currently being used, is it available for all voters or only some groups of voters?

E-voting inJapan: 2002-2009

1 Status ofE-Voting in Japan

In Japan, “Act on Special Provisions Concerning Voting Method by Meansof Electromagnetic Recording Voting Devices Used for Election of CouncilMembers and Heads of Local Governments (hereafter ‘Electromagnetic RecordingVoting Act’)” was enacted in the 153rd extraordinary Diet session on November30, 2001. The Act was issued on December 7, and put into effect on February 1,2002, which enabled e-voting for local elections. The Electromagnetic RecordingVoting Act is intended only to the elections for a head of a local governmentor a member of a local council. Each local government is required to establishits own ordinance before holding any e-voting.

For example, in the case of Niimi City, Okayama Prefecture, Niimi CityCouncil enacted “Ordinance Concerning Voting by Means of ElectromagneticRecording Voting Devices Used for Elections of Council Members and Mayor ofNiimi City” in March, 2002. This enabled e-voting in the double election ofNiimi City Mayor and the Council members on June 23 of the same year. Sincethen, there have been total of twenty cases of e-voting by ten municipalities.This number indicates that the dawn of e-voting in Japan is over and thecountry is now in the phase of establishment.  

Source:http://rc10.ipsa.org/public/e-voting-in-japan.pdf