Demography and Democracy: How Population Aging Alters Democracy – The Case of Japan

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Gabriele Vogt
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 510553228

As demographic change is advancing in many liberal democracies, the implications of this dynamic for democracy increasingly receive attention. It is often hypothesized that due to a shift towards a greying society, elderly voters’ interests are over-, and the younger generation’s interests are underrepresented, with probable consequences for intergenerational equity, societal sustainability and a general ability to implement reforms. Against this background, this research project sets out to analyze the actual political implications of population aging and to examine potential responses to this demographic shift from within the political system. The project takes up the case of Japan, the democracy with the oldest electorate in the world. The analysis is conducted along two dimensions, political participation/representation and policymaking, and adopts a system- and an agent-level perspective in each dimension. The system-level perspective refers to the effects of population aging on the political system whereas the agent-level perspective refers to the responses of selected actors, specifically the young electorate and political parties, to an aging democracy. The project deploys a mix of qualitative methods which include documentary research on official statistics and unpublished campaign material of political parties, expert interviews, and focus group interviews, thus aiming for case study based in-depth insights. By applying a multi-perspective approach that covers the institutional and the individual level of political dynamics enfolding in Japan’s greying democracy, the project will generate knowledge on how population aging alters political participation/representation and policymaking, and consequently, the fundamental workings of democracy itself.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants