Pub Date : 2023-01-04DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000378
A. Catalinac, Taishi Muraoka
Abstract More than 50 studies have examined the programmatic incumbent support hypothesis, which posits that once enacted, programmatic policies increase electoral support for the incumbent. Despite the careful attention to causal inference in this work, empirical findings have been strikingly inconsistent. We make the case that these inconsistent results are likely explained by incumbents' strategic responses to the enactment of a programmatic policy. Specifically, incumbents have good reasons to distribute different amounts of non-programmatic goods to voters who do and do not receive a programmatic policy. To examine this conjecture, we turn to the case of Japan, where municipalities receive allocations of non-programmatic goods and vary in their eligibility for a programmatic policy (a snow subsidy) according to plausibly exogenous factors. Using a geographic regression discontinuity design, we find that municipalities receiving the programmatic policy receive systematically more non-programmatic goods than municipalities that do not.
{"title":"How incumbent politicians respond to the enactment of a programmatic policy: evidence from snow subsidies","authors":"A. Catalinac, Taishi Muraoka","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000378","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract More than 50 studies have examined the programmatic incumbent support hypothesis, which posits that once enacted, programmatic policies increase electoral support for the incumbent. Despite the careful attention to causal inference in this work, empirical findings have been strikingly inconsistent. We make the case that these inconsistent results are likely explained by incumbents' strategic responses to the enactment of a programmatic policy. Specifically, incumbents have good reasons to distribute different amounts of non-programmatic goods to voters who do and do not receive a programmatic policy. To examine this conjecture, we turn to the case of Japan, where municipalities receive allocations of non-programmatic goods and vary in their eligibility for a programmatic policy (a snow subsidy) according to plausibly exogenous factors. Using a geographic regression discontinuity design, we find that municipalities receiving the programmatic policy receive systematically more non-programmatic goods than municipalities that do not.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48127267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-04DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000330
Margarita Estévez-Abe
Abstract This article has two objectives. One is to explain the rise of female political representation in local assemblies in Tokyo's 23 Special Wards. The other is to examine how political women in Japan have or have not changed since the publication of Susan Pharr's Political Women in Japan in 1981. When Tokyo first saw the emergence of a new type of local assembly women in the 1990s, they consisted of well-educated suburban housewives who led the Seikatsusha Nettowaku movement. In the past 15 years, however, Tokyo has witnessed a decline in ‘housewife politicians’ and a further diversification in the types of political women. This article pays special attention to a new type of political women called Mama Giin (literally, mommy politicians). Mama Giin are professional working mothers, who have become local assembly women to address deficiencies in childcare services. Their numbers increased as socio-economic changes and party realignment reshaped supply and demand for female candidates in Tokyo. Most of them accept the gendered responsibilities for childcare very much like Pharr's New Women did in the 1970s. The younger cohorts of highly educated women enjoy greater job options and life choices unavailable to the New Women of their mothers' generation. However, they do not necessarily challenge Japan's patriarchy. This article examines the biographies of female local politicians in Tokyo's 23 Special Ward assemblies to understand the rise of Mama Giin.
{"title":"Changing faces of political women in Tokyo","authors":"Margarita Estévez-Abe","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000330","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article has two objectives. One is to explain the rise of female political representation in local assemblies in Tokyo's 23 Special Wards. The other is to examine how political women in Japan have or have not changed since the publication of Susan Pharr's Political Women in Japan in 1981. When Tokyo first saw the emergence of a new type of local assembly women in the 1990s, they consisted of well-educated suburban housewives who led the Seikatsusha Nettowaku movement. In the past 15 years, however, Tokyo has witnessed a decline in ‘housewife politicians’ and a further diversification in the types of political women. This article pays special attention to a new type of political women called Mama Giin (literally, mommy politicians). Mama Giin are professional working mothers, who have become local assembly women to address deficiencies in childcare services. Their numbers increased as socio-economic changes and party realignment reshaped supply and demand for female candidates in Tokyo. Most of them accept the gendered responsibilities for childcare very much like Pharr's New Women did in the 1970s. The younger cohorts of highly educated women enjoy greater job options and life choices unavailable to the New Women of their mothers' generation. However, they do not necessarily challenge Japan's patriarchy. This article examines the biographies of female local politicians in Tokyo's 23 Special Ward assemblies to understand the rise of Mama Giin.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47054663","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-27DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000287
Johann Park, Chung‐in Moon
Abstract Recent scholarly efforts to reveal the political effects of transnational terrorism are encouraging. They contribute to our understanding of how terrorism affects the targeted societies. We attempt to extend this line of research by examining the political impact of domestic terrorism. Domestic incidents overwhelmingly outnumber transnational incidents. In addition, the differences between domestic and transnational incidents may produce political outcomes. We examine the impact of domestic terrorism on the political survival of national leaders in the targeted societies. Our cross-national time-series analysis on a worldwide sample of 172 countries over the 1970–2014 period shows that domestic terrorism has a significant positive impact on leadership change. This impact is robust to various estimation techniques. This result suggests that heightened incidents of domestic terrorism hasten the removal of incumbent leaders in the targeted societies.
{"title":"Domestic terrorism and leader survival, 1970–2014","authors":"Johann Park, Chung‐in Moon","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000287","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Recent scholarly efforts to reveal the political effects of transnational terrorism are encouraging. They contribute to our understanding of how terrorism affects the targeted societies. We attempt to extend this line of research by examining the political impact of domestic terrorism. Domestic incidents overwhelmingly outnumber transnational incidents. In addition, the differences between domestic and transnational incidents may produce political outcomes. We examine the impact of domestic terrorism on the political survival of national leaders in the targeted societies. Our cross-national time-series analysis on a worldwide sample of 172 countries over the 1970–2014 period shows that domestic terrorism has a significant positive impact on leadership change. This impact is robust to various estimation techniques. This result suggests that heightened incidents of domestic terrorism hasten the removal of incumbent leaders in the targeted societies.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41661323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000342
Francisco Cantú
Most of the existing explanations for authoritarian elections suffer from two shortcomings. The first one is the generalization of their findings. Single-country cases inspire many of these theories, and it is hard to know whether their proposed predictions apply to other autocracies. The second problem is prevalent in social sciences: there is no cumulative learning. Many theories of authoritarian elections provide competing explanations to the conventional wisdom without delineating the conditions in which the proposed mechanism should appear over the alternatives. Masaaki Higashijima ’ s recent publication, The Dictator ’ s Dilemma at the Ballot Box , overcomes such limitations in a magistral way. The author proposes a solid argument about the incentives for dictators to hold and manipulate elections and provides a multi-methods approach using cross-national evidence to test his argument. The book centers around the competing incentives for dictators when holding elections. On the one hand, honest election results provide information about the regime ’ s popularity, the discontent areas, and local agents ’ competence. Authoritarian elections also allow the opposition to channel its demands through the institutional arena, mitigating the threats to the dictators. On the other, winning by large margins can transmit an aura of invincibility and strong popular support to the dictator inside and outside the ruling elites. In the best
现有对独裁选举的大多数解释都有两个缺点。第一个是对他们的发现的概括。单一国家的案例激发了许多这样的理论,很难知道他们提出的预测是否适用于其他独裁国家。第二个问题在社会科学中很普遍:没有累积的学习。许多关于独裁选举的理论为传统智慧提供了相互竞争的解释,但没有描述拟议机制应该出现在替代方案之上的条件。东岛正明(Masaaki Higashijima)最近出版的《独裁者在投票箱的困境》(The Dictator’s Dilemma at The Ballot Box)以一种权威的方式克服了这些限制。作者就独裁者举行和操纵选举的动机提出了一个坚实的论点,并提供了一种使用跨国家证据来检验他的论点的多种方法。这本书围绕着独裁者在举行选举时相互竞争的动机展开。一方面,诚实的选举结果提供了有关政权受欢迎程度、不满地区和地方代理人能力的信息。威权主义选举还允许反对派通过体制舞台传递其要求,减轻对独裁者的威胁。另一方面,以较大优势获胜可以将不可战胜的光环和强大的民众支持传递给统治精英内外的独裁者。在最好的
{"title":"The Dictator's Dilemma at the Ballot Box By Masaaki Higashijima. 2022. University of Michigan Press. Book Reviews","authors":"Francisco Cantú","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000342","url":null,"abstract":"Most of the existing explanations for authoritarian elections suffer from two shortcomings. The first one is the generalization of their findings. Single-country cases inspire many of these theories, and it is hard to know whether their proposed predictions apply to other autocracies. The second problem is prevalent in social sciences: there is no cumulative learning. Many theories of authoritarian elections provide competing explanations to the conventional wisdom without delineating the conditions in which the proposed mechanism should appear over the alternatives. Masaaki Higashijima ’ s recent publication, The Dictator ’ s Dilemma at the Ballot Box , overcomes such limitations in a magistral way. The author proposes a solid argument about the incentives for dictators to hold and manipulate elections and provides a multi-methods approach using cross-national evidence to test his argument. The book centers around the competing incentives for dictators when holding elections. On the one hand, honest election results provide information about the regime ’ s popularity, the discontent areas, and local agents ’ competence. Authoritarian elections also allow the opposition to channel its demands through the institutional arena, mitigating the threats to the dictators. On the other, winning by large margins can transmit an aura of invincibility and strong popular support to the dictator inside and outside the ruling elites. In the best","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47490022","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000329
Phillip Y. Lipscy
Abstract Why study Japan? Research on contemporary Japanese politics and foreign policy faces headwinds from the relative geopolitical decline of Japan and scholars skeptical about single-country studies. An overview of Japanese politics publications in English-language journals over the past four decades suggests the subfield remains active and robust. However, there is still room to grow. I argue that Japan is a harbinger state, which experiences many challenges before others in the international system. As such, studying Japan can inform both scholars and policymakers about the political challenges other countries are likely to confront in the future. In turn, scholarship on Japan offers a critical opportunity to develop theoretical insights, assess early empirical evidence, and offer policy lessons about emerging challenges and the political contestation surrounding them. I consider the reasons why Japan so often emerges as a harbinger across issue areas and suggest areas for ongoing scholarly attention.
{"title":"Japan: the harbinger state","authors":"Phillip Y. Lipscy","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000329","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Why study Japan? Research on contemporary Japanese politics and foreign policy faces headwinds from the relative geopolitical decline of Japan and scholars skeptical about single-country studies. An overview of Japanese politics publications in English-language journals over the past four decades suggests the subfield remains active and robust. However, there is still room to grow. I argue that Japan is a harbinger state, which experiences many challenges before others in the international system. As such, studying Japan can inform both scholars and policymakers about the political challenges other countries are likely to confront in the future. In turn, scholarship on Japan offers a critical opportunity to develop theoretical insights, assess early empirical evidence, and offer policy lessons about emerging challenges and the political contestation surrounding them. I consider the reasons why Japan so often emerges as a harbinger across issue areas and suggest areas for ongoing scholarly attention.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42708418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-25DOI: 10.1017/s1468109922000275
{"title":"JJP volume 23 issue 4 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s1468109922000275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1468109922000275","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48543312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-25DOI: 10.1017/s1468109922000263
The Japanese Journal of Political Science is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes original theoretical and empirically tested political science research. Manuscripts across the full range of sub-fields and research methodologies are welcome for consideration. We are open to single country or comparative studies, and particularly encourage those manuscripts that draw on interdisciplinary approaches to political science questions.
{"title":"JJP volume 23 issue 4 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/s1468109922000263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s1468109922000263","url":null,"abstract":"The Japanese Journal of Political Science is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes original theoretical and empirically tested political science research. Manuscripts across the full range of sub-fields and research methodologies are welcome for consideration. We are open to single country or comparative studies, and particularly encourage those manuscripts that draw on interdisciplinary approaches to political science questions.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45810132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-28DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000251
G. Steel, Natsuki Kohama
Abstract Japan has experienced many of the factors associated with populism, but has not experienced an upsurge of populism in national-level politics. We posit that the dominant frames in the Japanese print media coverage of populism form a crucial and overlooked part of the explanation for the absence of populism. Our qualitative human-coded analysis of quality and tabloid coverage demonstrates that overall, the Japanese newspapers act as gatekeepers and set an agenda that is unfavorable for right-wing populism. The press engage in ‘media populism’ and frame populism – and alternatives to the status quo more generally – as a threat. Moreover, the print media are not hostile to immigrants in ways that populists could leverage.
{"title":"Populism and the print media: the case of Japan","authors":"G. Steel, Natsuki Kohama","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000251","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Japan has experienced many of the factors associated with populism, but has not experienced an upsurge of populism in national-level politics. We posit that the dominant frames in the Japanese print media coverage of populism form a crucial and overlooked part of the explanation for the absence of populism. Our qualitative human-coded analysis of quality and tabloid coverage demonstrates that overall, the Japanese newspapers act as gatekeepers and set an agenda that is unfavorable for right-wing populism. The press engage in ‘media populism’ and frame populism – and alternatives to the status quo more generally – as a threat. Moreover, the print media are not hostile to immigrants in ways that populists could leverage.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44462749","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-26DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000214
J. Lee, Y. Kim, J. Y. Kim
Abstract This article examines three Japan–South Korea postwar compensation cases: the comfort women issue, the Sakhalin Island forced labor issue, and Korean atomic bomb survivor issue. These compensation movements produced vastly different results, even though the basic policy directions for compensation provision in all three cases were similar. Japan's approach toward the comfort women problem has been a complete failure, while its treatment of the Sakhalin forced labor issue and the atomic bomb issues has been more successful. This article's explanation of the different outcomes focuses on the character and geographical base of the civic groups leading these compensation movements. In South Korea, women's rights activists spearheaded the comfort women compensation movement and related victim-relief activities. The Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that assisted the comfort women treated this problem not only as a women's rights issue, but also as a nationalist issue. In contrast, the Red Cross, a politically neutral international organization, promoted the Sakhalin forced labor and atomic bomb issues. In short, the different receptions accorded to those championing the comfort women issue and those promoting the Sakhalin forced labor and atomic bomb issues depended on the principal agent of each compensation process. This article aims to provide some implications for successfully implementing postwar compensation policies. It suggests that, if successful postwar compensation policy depends on successful perpetrator–victim reconciliation, establishing solidarity between perpetrator and victim countries’ civic groups is important. This can only be facilitated through the depoliticized and transparent operation of leading NGOs both inside and outside the redressal-seeking nation.
{"title":"What determines the relative success of different war compensation policies? Comparing three unresolved compensation issues between Japan and South Korea","authors":"J. Lee, Y. Kim, J. Y. Kim","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000214","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000214","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines three Japan–South Korea postwar compensation cases: the comfort women issue, the Sakhalin Island forced labor issue, and Korean atomic bomb survivor issue. These compensation movements produced vastly different results, even though the basic policy directions for compensation provision in all three cases were similar. Japan's approach toward the comfort women problem has been a complete failure, while its treatment of the Sakhalin forced labor issue and the atomic bomb issues has been more successful. This article's explanation of the different outcomes focuses on the character and geographical base of the civic groups leading these compensation movements. In South Korea, women's rights activists spearheaded the comfort women compensation movement and related victim-relief activities. The Korean non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that assisted the comfort women treated this problem not only as a women's rights issue, but also as a nationalist issue. In contrast, the Red Cross, a politically neutral international organization, promoted the Sakhalin forced labor and atomic bomb issues. In short, the different receptions accorded to those championing the comfort women issue and those promoting the Sakhalin forced labor and atomic bomb issues depended on the principal agent of each compensation process. This article aims to provide some implications for successfully implementing postwar compensation policies. It suggests that, if successful postwar compensation policy depends on successful perpetrator–victim reconciliation, establishing solidarity between perpetrator and victim countries’ civic groups is important. This can only be facilitated through the depoliticized and transparent operation of leading NGOs both inside and outside the redressal-seeking nation.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43862745","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-28DOI: 10.1017/S1468109922000226
Kyohei Yamada, Gene Park
Abstract This paper explores how Japan's aging population impacts the politics of monetary policy. Previous research suggests that the elderly have a variety of distinct policy preferences. Given that elderly voters also have higher voting rates, the rapid greying of the population could have significant effects on distributive struggles over economic policy across much of the developed world. In Japan, aging is advancing rapidly, and the central bank has engaged in massive monetary stimulus to induce inflation, which existing work suggests the elderly should oppose. Analyzing results from three surveys, this paper has three central findings: (1) the elderly tend to have higher inflation aversion, (2) the elderly display some opposition to quantitative easing (QE), and (3) despite such policy preferences, the concentration of elderly in electoral districts has no significant effect on the preferences either of legislative incumbents or candidates. The third finding is attributable to the fact that elderly opposition to QE is moderated by their partisan identification. Elderly Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voters have systematically lower opposition to QE, likely reflecting that these voters have aligned their preferences with the LDP's policies.
{"title":"Aging and the politics of monetary policy in Japan","authors":"Kyohei Yamada, Gene Park","doi":"10.1017/S1468109922000226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S1468109922000226","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper explores how Japan's aging population impacts the politics of monetary policy. Previous research suggests that the elderly have a variety of distinct policy preferences. Given that elderly voters also have higher voting rates, the rapid greying of the population could have significant effects on distributive struggles over economic policy across much of the developed world. In Japan, aging is advancing rapidly, and the central bank has engaged in massive monetary stimulus to induce inflation, which existing work suggests the elderly should oppose. Analyzing results from three surveys, this paper has three central findings: (1) the elderly tend to have higher inflation aversion, (2) the elderly display some opposition to quantitative easing (QE), and (3) despite such policy preferences, the concentration of elderly in electoral districts has no significant effect on the preferences either of legislative incumbents or candidates. The third finding is attributable to the fact that elderly opposition to QE is moderated by their partisan identification. Elderly Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voters have systematically lower opposition to QE, likely reflecting that these voters have aligned their preferences with the LDP's policies.","PeriodicalId":44381,"journal":{"name":"Japanese Journal of Political Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2022-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47541914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}