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Perceived Political Polarization and its Differential Impact on Political Participation: Evidence from Japan (2005–2019)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2024

Yue Yin Open the ORCID record for Yue Yin [Opens in a new window]
Yue Yin*
Affiliation:
Center for Japanese Studies, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Political polarization has been a growing concern in Japan, particularly in recent years with the upsurge of nationalism and populism. However, little research has examined how it relates to the political behavior of the Japanese people. Using data from the 2005–2019 Japanese Electoral Studies (JES), this study shows that political polarization manifests itself in different ways depending on the specific policy domains that citizens perceive as divergent. Specifically, I discover that people who perceive higher levels of policy divergence between left- and right-wing parties on domestic and international policies are more likely to vote and participate in politics through publicly accessible networks, while there appears to be no evidence showing that perceiving high levels of policy divergence on economic issues has a meaningful effect on any type of political participation. Implications of these findings as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords

political polarizationpolitical participationJapan
Type
Article
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , July 2024 , pp. 125 - 144
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The East Asia Institute

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