Paper short abstract:

The youth in Japan have a lower level of political efficacy than other generations. On the flip side, their political efficacy would not be low forever, and it could increase accordingly with age. Using survey datasets from the 1980s, this study analyzes how the youth foster political efficacy.

Paper long abstract:

While the low voter turnout among Japanese youth is well known, their degrees of political efficacy are also lower than other generations. The alienation of young people from politics is insisted as a concern, but addressing this issue, it is not sufficient to consider only the youth of the temporal point in time. Instead, we should consider not only how the youth of the present are detached from politics but also the youth of the past have subsequently come to deal with politics. Regarding the low level of political efficacy, on the one hand, the youth of the past would not have the low level of political efficacy forever, and it could increase accordingly with age. On the other hand, if the level of political efficacy does not increase with age and remains low, then subsequent generations should continue to have an even lower degree of it. If the former pattern applies, we should pursue the factors that foster a sense of political efficacy and speculate on the reasons for a low level of political efficacy among young people. If the latter pattern applies, the problem is more serious, but it is necessary to identify the political and social contexts that cause the decline in their political efficacy. In so doing, we should utilize multiple survey datasets that cover a long period to compare the youth of today and the youth of the past. In this study, we rely on the surveys with national representative samples from the 1980s to the late 2010s, analyzing the change and continuity of the youth’s political efficacy and the determinant of the level of political efficacy.