In Japan, the upper house elections were recently held. When I saw the style of election campaigning here, decent participation of the people and restrained campaign of the leaders, I felt a different kind of democracy from Nepali political crowd and grandeur.

This democracy is not about winning as much as shouting, but about listening, understanding and using discretion while voting. 

The election is a few days away. After work like any other day, I was walking towards Tokyo's Ueno Station. Hot weather, fast moving people and I am a tired laborer eager to go home. Right next to the station, my gaze suddenly stopped – a female candidate was giving an election speech with a microphone in her hand. The scene was strange. The speech was being made, but there was no crowd around, no flags, no slogans - only a few helpers and people walking along the road as if listening. 

His voice was calm, his demeanor polite. As if he was expressing himself as a duty, not a burden of democracy. At that time, I realized that elections in this country are not a fair, but a test of conscience. 

At that moment, I lost myself in the memory of Nepal. I remembered the uproar in our village when elections come. Hundreds of supporters wearing slogans, processions, holding alcohol and t-shirts with the leader's photo, who are burning for the battle of 'Zindabad-Murdabad'. Some even walk for hours to see the leader even if their stomach is empty. Some people do not hesitate to fight because of the temptation of alcohol. And after the election, they return to the daily life of hunger and unemployment. 

Here in Japan, where I work, people get involved in politics but only to vote. They don't have to follow anyone, they don't have to spend time looking for a leader. Their self-reliance and personal conscience is the identity of their voters.