Democracy This & Democracy That

"'The best place to watch the election campaign? Shibuya Station Square. It's a madhouse.'
That was the answer I received from the political reporter of the Nippon Times. The campaign for the first free general election in twenty years, and the first in Japanese history in which women were permitted to vote as well as run for seats in the Diet, was in full swing. It was April, 1946.
I took the subway and headed for Shibuya Square. The Place was certainly a bedlam.
Never were people drawn with such magnetic force by a single word - Democracy. Never did so many orators speak with such bombast and ardor on a subject about which they knew so little. It was a good thing for most of the candidates that the public knew even less than they about democracy.
To every candidate democracy was the difference between victory and defeat. So all the major factions used the word "democrats" with their names. The Socialists were the Social Democrats; the center party called itself the Democrats; the extreme rightists were named the Democratic Liberals. The Communists couldn't very well call themselves Democratic Communists, but they also claimed they were the strongest upholders of democracy.
I never heard so many orations on democracy, and I doubt whether so many were ever delivered at one time at any given place. In an area about a hundred square yards, the various parties set up platforms, each equipped with a gigantic loud-speaker. Because the place was so small and crowded, the speakers practically drowned each other out, and the only words you could hear were democracy this and democracy that."

Kimpei Sheba: I Cover Japan (1952)