2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Transformation of Japanese Civil Society and the Impact to Political Process
| Project/Area Number |
17530119
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Politics
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| Research Institution | Kwansei Gakuin University |
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Principal Investigator |
YAMADA Masahiro Kwansei Gakuin University, School of Law and Politics, Professor (40260468)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKENAKA Yoshihiko University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate Professor (80236489)
MORI Hiroki Doshisha University, Faculty of Law, Associate Professor (70329936)
MIWA Hiroki University of Tsukuba, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate Professor (40375390)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2007
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| Keywords | civil society / political participation / ideology / political process / voting pattern |
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| Research Abstract |
This project aimed to analyze the impact from transformation of civil society in Japan from various perspectives. Yamada has explored the long-term change in Japanese political participation through analyzing national survey data. from 1976 to 2005. The findings are 1) no increase at elite-challenging participation ; 2) correlation among various ways, of participation shows changes from time to time, 3) decreasing the participation gap on gender and income level.
Takenaka has investigated current situation in Japanese ideology. His main findings are below. The one is that he does not observe the increase of constituents who do not understand ideology, and neither conservatization or neutralization, even after the breakdown of the LDP's predominant party system. The second is that Japanese ideology displays declining tendency at binding issues, but national security. The third point is that ideology still has a strong power to differentiate the LDP with leftist parties, such as SDP and JCP
Mori analyzes the impact of the change at electoral institution to voting pattern in Japan. He has found effective rearrangement at electoral bases under the past SNTV system, and the LDP tends to decrease the number of votes in rural districts.
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