Youth political representation in an aging Japan
- 28 September 2023
- 1:00pm – 2:15pm
- Online
- https://dajf.org.uk/event/youth-political-representation-in-an-aging-japan
- +44 (0)20 7486 4348
- events@dajf.org.uk
- Tweet
Young people in Japan are considerably underrepresented in many of the country’s political institutions, leaving decision-making mostly in the hands of older politicians. This age bias in politics may have profound consequences for the structuring of welfare policies in Japan, which faces a declining birth rate and rapidly aging population.
In this webinar, Dr McClean will explain why young politicians are so rare, provide evidence that many Japanese voters would like to see this age bias corrected, and demonstrate how the shortage of young politicians significantly affects both democracy and the social policies promoted and implemented by the government.
About the contributors
Dr Charles T. McClean
Dr Charles T. McClean is the Japan Foundation Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University’s Council on East Asian Studies. Before coming to Yale, he was the Toyota Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan’s Center for Japanese Studies and a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University’s Program on U.S.-Japan Relations. His work has most recently appeared in the peer-reviewed journals Comparative Political Studies, British Journal of Political Science, Nature Medicine, and Political Psychology. He is currently working on a book, Silver Democracy: Youth Representation in an Aging Japan, that explores the causes and consequences of youth underrepresentation in democracies. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Fulbright Fellow at Kobe University. He holds a BA in International Relations and Japanese from Tufts University (summa cum laude), an MA from the Regional Studies East Asia program at Harvard University, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
