Populism in Regional Japan: Where is the "Revenge of the Places That Don't Matter"?
Populism in Regional Japan: Where is the "Revenge of the Places That Don't Matter"?
Large parts of regional Japan have been facing protracted demographic and socio-economic decline in the form of outmigration, disproportionate aging, depopulation, industrial decline, weak local economies, and eroding public service provision. Political programs to “revitalize” Japan’s peripheries – such as the Abe governments’ (2012-2020) “regional creation” campaign – have so far proven insufficient to stop the socio-economic, political, and cultural overconcentration on the Tokyo area. If anything, it seems that the political interest in regional Japan has been declining over recent years. In many democratic countries throughout the developed world (incl. Germany, France, USA and UK), peripheralized regions (both rural and deindustrializing) have been identified as the breeding ground for mostly right-wing populist movements – the electoral “revenge of the places that don’t matter”, as Andres Rodriguez-Pose labelled it. In Japan, however, the peripheries have not yet “taken revenge”. At the same time, nativist and nationalist positions are very much present in Japanese politics, and some areas (such as Osaka or Nagoya) have seen the rise of regional "neoliberal" populist politicians and parties - trends that the results of the general elections in October 2021 seem to confirm.
As a growing body of literature investigates the characteristics of populism “made in Japan”, this workshop aims to investgate the missing link between regional inequality, peripheralization, and populism in Japan. The workshop brings together experts on populism in Japan, local politics, and the political economy of regional Japan, thereby combining different disciplinary perspectives as well as qualitative and quantitative methods.
Dates
December 17, 2021, 10:15-12:30 (CET)
December 18, 2021, 10:30-12:45 (CET)
Join the workshop online via zoom
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/93020659467?pwd=d3NmdUdHSHpaYWs5WThjK1NBbmVjdz09
Meeting-ID: 930 2065 9467
Kenncode: 682315
*No registration required*
Contact and inquiries: hanno.jentzsch@univie.ac.at
Contributors
Andreas Eder-Ramsauer (Freie Universität Berlin)
Ken V.L. Hijino (Kyoto University)
Hanno Jentzsch (University of Vienna)
Axel Klein (University of Duisburg-Essen)
Kostiantyn Ovsiannikov (Kochi University of Technology)
Gabriele Vogt (LMU Munich)
Friday, December 17
10:15 - 10:30: Introduction
10:30 - 12:30: Session I - Characteristics of populism in Japan
- Axel Klein: "Populism in Japan - What we know and where we can go from here"
- Andreas Eder-Ramsauer: "The possibilities and realities of left-wing populism in Japan: A discourse-theoretical approach to the potentials and constraints of Yamamoto Tarō’s Reiwa Shinsengumi"
- Comments/Discussion - Discussant: Gabriele Vogt
Saturday, December 18
10:30 - 12:30: Session II - Searching for a populist movement in Japan's regions
- Kostiantyn Ovsiannikov/Hanno Jentzsch: "Socio-economic decline and voting behavior in rural peripheries: In search for Japan's rural populist potential"
- Ken Hijino: Rural populism in nonpartisan environments: Evidence from gubernatorial and mayoral elections"
- Comments/Discussion - Discussant: Gabriele Vogt
12:30 - 12:45: Closing remarks