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Aspects of Community Political Participation in Japan: Sex, Education, and Generation in the Process of Political Socialization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Alice  and
Yasumasa Kuroda
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Extract

One of the historical generalizations one can make about politics in the past several hundred years is that an increasing proportion of the adult population is participating politically everywhere. A group which has gained the right to vote in recent times is women. Political scientists have paid relatively little attention to this largest minority in the world of politics. Women constitute more than one half of the total population in many parts of the world today, yet the differences in sex is treated along with other demographic variables and receives little specific attention by political scientists.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , February 1968 , pp. 229 - 251
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

1 See, for example, Lane, Robert E., Political Life (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959)Google Scholar.

2 The notable exception to this generalization in Maurice Duverger's work on the political role of women in five European countries. Duverger, Maurice, The Political Role of Women (Paris: UNESCO, 1955)Google Scholar.

3 Almond, Gabriel A. and Verba, Sidney, The Civic Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963). P. 398CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Yasumasa Kuroda reports that he found no statistically significant intrafamily association between political orientation of the Japanese law students and that of their parents. Kuroda, Yasumasa, “Agencies of Political Socialization and Political Change: Political Orientation of Japanese Law Students,” Human Organization, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Winter, 1965–66), 328–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Anderson, Ronald S., Japan: Three Epochs of Modern Education (Washington, D. C: Government Printing Office, 1959)Google Scholar: Department of State, Report of the Education Mission to Japan (Washington, D. C: Government Printing Office, 1946)Google Scholar: Hall, Robert K., Shushin: The Ethics of a Defeated Nation (New York: Columbia Teachers College, 1949)Google Scholar.

6 Two exceptions to this generalization are: Agger, Robert E. and Ostrom, Vincent, “Political Participation in a Small Community,” in Heinz Eulau, Samuel J. Eldersveld, and Morris Janowitz, ed., Political Behavior (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press), pp. 138–48Google Scholar: Miller, Mungo, “The Waukegan Study of Voter Turnout Prediction,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Fall, 1952), 381–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Twenty-two studies conducted in nine countries support the generalization. See Milbrath, Lester W., Political Participation (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965), pp. 135–36Google Scholar and the reference therein. Also see, Rosenau, James N., National Leadership and Foreign Policy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), pp. 96–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Berelson, Bernard R., Lazarsfeld, Paul F., and McPhee, William N., Voting (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1954), p. 25Google Scholar: Lazarsfeld, Paul F., Berelson, Bernard, and Gaudet, Hazel, The People's Choice (New York: Columbia University Press, 1944), pp. 48–49Google Scholar. An earlier report based upon the same survey as this paper has also shown that this generalization is true in this community. Kuroda, Yasumasa, “Political Role Attributions and Dynamics in a Japanese Community,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Winter, 1965–66), 602–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Maurice Duverger, op. cit., pp. 15–25.

8 Ibid., pp. 25–28: Lane, Robert E., Political Life (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1959), pp. 318–19Google Scholar: Lester W. Milbrath, op. cit., pp. 102–04: Key, V. O. Jr., American State Politics: An Introduction (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956), pp. 135–40Google Scholar: Boskoff, Alvin and Zeigler, Harmon, Voting Patterns in a Local Election (New York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1964), pp. 16–21Google Scholar and the references therein.

9 Kyogoku, Junn-ichi and Ike, Nobutake, “Urban-Rural Differences in Voting Behavior in Postwar Japan,” Stanford University Political Science Series, 66 (1959): Robert A. Scalapino and Junnosuke Masumi, Parties and Politics in Contemporary Japan (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1962), p. 109Google Scholar: Hoshino, Mitsuo, Nihon no Chihoseiji (Tokyo: Toyokeizaisha, 1961), pp. 96–104Google Scholar: Oka, Yoshitake, ed., Gendai-Nihon no Seijikatei [The Political Process of Contemporary Japan] (Tokyo: Iwanami, 1958), p. 355Google Scholar.

10 This reasoning is in agreement with the view expressed by Kyogoku, and Ike, . Also, what Scalapino and Masumi refer to as “traditional” and “modern” voting behavior is similar to Matsumoto's concept of collectivity orientations. Yoshiharu Scott Matsumoto, Contemporary Japan: The Individual and the Group (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society), Vol. 50, Part 1, 1960Google Scholar. Robert A. Scalapino and Junnosuke Masumi, op. cit., pp. 121–24: Furthermore, Tsuneishi comes out with a similar explanation. Tsuneishi, Warren M., Japanese Political Style (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), p. 158Google Scholar. Steiner, Kurt, Local Government in Japan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1965), pp. 375–76Google Scholar: Ward, Robert E., “Urban-Rural Differences and the Process of Political Modernization in Japan: A Case Study,” Economic Development and Cultural Change, Vol. 9, No. 1, Part II (October, 1960), 135–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Watanuki attributes this phenomenon to historical factors. Watanuki, Joji, “Political Attitudes of the Japanese People,” in Japanese Sociological Studies. The Sociological Review Monograph, No. 10, University of Keele (September, 1966), pp. 165–82Google Scholar. For these historical factors, see Totten, George O. III, “Nihon no Shichosonseido no Tokushitsu to sono Seiritsu” [“The Establishment and Character of Japanese Muncipal Government”]. Toshimondai [Municipal Problems], Vol. 44, No. 7 (July, 1953), 1–20Google Scholar. A most recent study which includes surveys conducted in 1966 suggests that we will need more complex theories to explain changing voting patterns in large metropolitan areas. Watanuki, Joji, “Daitoshi Jyumin no Seiji-ishiki” [“The Political Consciousness of Large Metropolitan Residents”], Nihon Rōdō Kyokai Zasshi [Japan Labor Cooperative Journal], (January, 1967) pp. 11–32Google Scholar.

11 Soma, Masao, Nihon no Senkyo Seiji [Electoral Politics in Japan], (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1963), pp. 217–19Google Scholar: Royama, Masamichi et al. , ed., Sōsenkyo no Jittei [The Actual Conditions of the General Election], (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1955). p. 173Google Scholar: Yoshitake Oka, op. cit., p. 355.

12 Five items used to construct this scale are:

1) Has anyone come to you within the past year for advice on what can or should be done in regard to local government or community welfare? (i) Yes, (2) No, (3) N.A.

2) How often have you seriously discussed local government or community matters during the past year with your friends? (1) Often, (2) Once in a while, (3) Not at all, (4) N.A.

3) Have you taken an active part in any local government or community issue since the annexation (1955)? (1) Yes, (2) No, (3) N.A.

4) I have a list of some of the things that people do that help a party or a candidate win an election. I wonder if you could tell me whether you did any of these things during the last election campaign in 1958? Did you talk to any people and try to show them why they should vote for one of the parties or candidates? (1) Yes, (2) No, (3) N.A

5) How interested are you in what the city government is doing? (1) Very interested, (2) Somewhat interested, (3) Not very interested, (4) Not at all interested, (5) N.A.

Coefficient of reproducibility = .99

Item scalability = .77

For more details, see Kuroda, Yasumasa, “Measurement, Correlates, and Significance of Political Participation in a Japanese Community,” Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 3 (September 1967) 660–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Campbell, Angus et al. , The American Voter (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1960), pp. 485–87Google Scholar.

14 Maurice Duverger, op. cit., p. 15.

15 Four items used to construct this scale are:

1) How often have you discussed world affairs during the past year with (family): (1) Often, (2) Once in a while, (3) Not at all, (4) N.A.

2) —— with (friends): same as above.

3) Some people don't pay much attention to world, national, prefectural and local politics. How about you (World Politics)? (1) Very interested, (2) Seldom, (3) Not interested, (4) N.A.

4) How often do you think of the following things in your daily life? (World Affairs) (1) Not at all, (2) Seldom, (3) Once in a while, (4) Often, (5) Very often, (6) N.A.

Coefficient of reproducibility = .98

Item scalability = .99

16 Four items used to construct this scale are:

1) Voting is the only way that people like me can have any say about how the government runs things.

2) Sometimes politics and government seem so complicated that a person like me can't really understand what's going on.

3) People like me don't have any say about what the government does.

4) I don't believe that public officials care about what people like me think.

Coefficient of reproducibility = .93

Item scalability = .74

17 Angus Campbell et al., op. cit., p. 490. Also see, Campbell, Angus, Gurin, Gerald, and Miller, Warren E., The Voter Decides (Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson and Company, 1954), p. 191Google Scholar: Robert E. Lane, op. cit., p. 214: Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, op. cit., p. 395.

18 Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba, op. cit., pp. 209–13.

19 For a detailed report on the desire for influence, see Kuroda, Yasumasa, “A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Desire for Political Power: Empirical Findings and Theoretical Implications,” Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1 (March, 1967), 51–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Yasumasa Kuroda, “Measurement, Correlates, and Significance of Political Participation in a Japanese Community,” op. cit.

21 For a more detailed report on this and other related findings on party preference, see Kuroda, Yasumasa, “Political Party Preference in a Japanese Community,” Journal of Asian and African Studies, (in press).Google Scholar

22 Maurice Duverger, op. cit., 49–67: Angus Campbell, Gerald Gurin and Warren E. Miller, op. cit., p. 78: This hypothesis is also accepted in England. Rose, Richard, Politics in England (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, 1964), p. 63Google Scholar.

23 With the notable exception of women's opinion on peace and other related issues, they are more conservative than men. Fujiwara, Hirotatsu, Gendai Nihon no Seiji-ishikf [The Political Consciousness of Contemporary Japan], (Tokyo: Sobunsha, 1958), p. 233Google Scholar: Nakamura, Kikuo, Seiji Shinrigaku [Political Psychology], (Tokyo: Yoshindō, 1962), p. 190Google Scholar. For Socialist parties' efforts to bid for women's votes, see Cole, Allan B., Totten, George O., and Uyehara, Cecil H., Socialist Parties in Postwar Japan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), pp. 435–39Google Scholar.

24 Lipset, Seymour M., Political Man (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1960), pp. 101–02Google Scholar. Four items used to construct this scale are:

1) The government should leave things like electric power and housing for business men to handle.

2) If cities and towns around the country need help to build more schools, the government ought to give them the money they need.

3) The government ought to help people get doctors and hospital care at low cost.

4) The government ought to see to it that everybody who wants to work can find a job.

Coefficient of reproducibility = .96

Item scalability = .85

25 Bernard R. Berelson, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and William N. McPhee, op. cit., p. 334: Glaser, William A. and Kadushin, Charles, “Political Behavior in Midterm Elections,” in McPhee, William N. and Glaser, William A., Public Opinion and Congressional Elections (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1962), p. 260.Google Scholar

26 Yoshinobu Scott Matsumoto, op. at., p. 64.

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28 Schneirla, I. C. and Rosenblatt, Jay S., “Behavioral Organization and Genesis of the Social Bond in Insects and Mammals,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol. 31, No. 2 (April, 1961), 223–53Google ScholarPubMed.