It has been said that bait are necessary in order to win an election in Japan. These are jiban (a constituency or bloc of voters who can be counted upon to give absolute support to the candidate), kanban (a personal background which gives the impression that the candidate is an important individual), and kaban (a briefcase which, of course, contains money). Recently, it is said that the ban have been changed to ki. As the reader may know, the Japanese Imperial Household contains Sacred Treasures which have been handed down from generation to generation since antiquity. With the postwar improvements in Japanese living standards, some people now speak in metaphonic fashion of the sacred treasures of household use: an electric washing machine, a refrigerator, and a television set. Incidentally, 79.4% of all urban households and 48.9% of all rural households now have television, and its influence upon elections is considerable. This reference to the ki of elections is naturally said in jest but, nevertheless, does suggest important changes of emphasis in recent Japanese elections. In electoral terms, the ki are ninki (popularity), soshiki (organization), and rieki (interests) . The importance of the briefcase, of course, has not disappeared. In fact, even in this election, people said three wins, two loses; this signified that with 30,000,000 Yen a candidate could be elected, whereas with 20,000,000 Yen he would lose. According to the Public Offices Election Law, the legally prescribed amount of campaign expenditures is limited to 6,000,000 Yen for a candidate from the national district and to 1,800,000 Yen for a candidate from a single-member local district.* To use more than this amount is illegal, but unfortunately, if rumor is correct, these limits are rarely observed. Even the unsavory practice of vote buying does not seem to have disappeared. Newspapers reported that votes were being bought, with the average price being 300 Yen, and the cheapest votes going for 150 Yen. On the day after the election, 1,103 search warrants and 342 arrest warrants were issued in connection with