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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Main Author: Takao, Yasuo
Format: Journal Article
Published: University of California Press 2022
Online Access:https://www.ucpress.edu/
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89113
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author Takao, Yasuo
author_facet Takao, Yasuo
author_sort Takao, Yasuo
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description 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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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-891132022-08-31T04:04:37Z Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters Takao, Yasuo 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. 2022 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89113 10.1525/as.2022.1698940 https://www.ucpress.edu/ University of California Press fulltext
spellingShingle Takao, Yasuo
Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
title Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
title_full Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
title_fullStr Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
title_full_unstemmed Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
title_short Intergenerational Politics in an Aging Society: The Graying of Japanese Voters
title_sort intergenerational politics in an aging society: the graying of japanese voters
url https://www.ucpress.edu/
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/89113