Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
Japan’s population is aging faster than any other nation’s, producing many more older voters, and raising an important question related to intergenerational equity. Do older voters prioritize their short-term self-interest at the expense of other generations? I find that the older voters in Japan...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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University of California Press
2022
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| Online Access: | https://www.ucpress.edu/ http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89113 |
| Summary: | Japan’s population is aging faster than any other nation’s, producing many
more older voters, and raising an important question related to intergenerational
equity. Do older voters prioritize their short-term self-interest at the
expense of other generations? I find that the older voters in Japan are surprisingly
less self-interested—even less than similarly aged voters in other
advanced economies—in maximizing their benefits as service consumers to
the detriment of younger voters. This behavior of older voters in Japan is an
enigma. To stimulate dialogue about an equitable and sustainable welfare
system, I consider a set of structural and institutional factors that may, individually
or collectively, help explain the apparently less self-interested preferences
of older voters in Japan. |
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