This paper considers the functions and effects of "representation" in politics and education. The voting age for public elections in Japan has been lowered from 20 or older to 18 or older, calling for a shift in the curriculum to the basics of political participation and competence. In this paper, while focusing on the political issues…

This paper examines how teachers expressing their political views influence students' opinion formation and discussions in classrooms regarding controversial issues. We used the methods of Journell (2011) and built on the scholarship of Hess and McAvoy (2015) and Iwasaki (2021). As a case study, we observed a junior high school social studies…

This study attempts to clarify Japanese youth participation policies' characteristics by analyzing four national youth policy documents in the 2000s. Compared with European youth policy, the article will investigate the challenges Japanese youth policy faces. Though recent Japanese national youth policy sees young people as active agents for…

In democracy education, determining how best to teach young children about democracy and how to measure the effectiveness of such learning is difficult, as "democracy" is a subjective and intangible concept. Given the challenge that this presents to educational planners, the author has created a cartoon video about democracy accompanied…

This paper examines the "subjectification" function of political education in democracy, considering the present situation of political education in Japan. In particular, from the point of view of political science, it focuses on the relationship between democratic theories and political education and considers whether the possibility of…

The social-media news website "Reddit" boasts a huge readership with over 35 million unique visitors for December 2011 alone. Content is generated by users, who submit links from other websites to the various sub-forums. Users also have the ability to comment on links, providing the means for a community to be developed. Both content and…

Divided into four major parts, this document explains the significance of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in Japan. Part 1 indicates that the LDP has governed Japan since 1955 and controls 445 seats in the 764 seat parliament. The selection of the prime minister, chosen from within the ruling party, is seen as vital to U.S. interests. For…

The survey reviews recent research on political behavior in Japan and describes the nature and institutional setting of political science in Japan. Political science is regarded as a small academic discipline which is frequently an adjunct to another academic department within a university. Political scientists in Japan have exhibited less…