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Is There Left Populism in Japan? The Case of Reiwa Shinsengumi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Axel Klein
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Abstract

The rather heterogeneous state of populism research on Japan and the potentially populist quality of the new political party Reiwa Shinsengumi are the two key points addressed in this paper. Based on a summary of dominant concepts of populism and the pertinent research on Japan I argue for an ideational approach to make Japan more accessible to comparative efforts. Using Reiwa Shinsengumi as an example, I conclude that there is little populism to be found and suggest that future research needs to look for explanations why Japan is apparently different in this respect from other mature liberal democracies.

Keywords

PopulismReiwa Shinsengumiideational approach
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 18 , Issue 10 , May 2020 , e1
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2020

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