Political apathy in Japan: A study on how Japanese political parties address youth

Political participation among Japanese youth has been on a steady decline since the peak of the major activist and protest movements of the 60s and 70s. Legislation, restrictions, and social realities have also contributed to the strained relationship between youth and politics. The past few decades have been characterized by mistrust and dishonesty as a result, affecting youths’ willingness to participate politically. This thesis examined 4 political parties and their published material around the 2019 Lower House election to understand how they address youth. Through discourse analysis of the published material, three primary discourses surrounding youth were constructed to comprehend in what ways each party talked to and about youth, in the context of the political realities that have contributed to youths’ decline in civil society. The analysis found that parties use different material and speech depending on if they talk to or about youth. Moreover, their speech contributed to discourse in various ways, where the JCP and CDP often emphasize youth as a hopeful but institutionally disadvantaged group, while the LDP and Kōmeitō constructed a picture of youth as means to state survival. All parties acknowledged the political apathy among youth, with different severity and reasoning behind it.