Design of a workshop using the “Seiji Card Game”

Abstract

The participation rate of citizens in elections is low. In particular, young people’s indifference is remarkable, and in the 2021 general election for the House of Representatives, voter turnout among those in their 20s was about 36.5%, about half the rate among 60s. We need to create opportunities for young people to become interested and concerned about politic.
We think that one of the reasons for young people’s distrust of politics is that they are constantly exposed to “political scandals,” so we designed a workshop to focus on the various activities of politicians. In the 1) “Knowing” activity, after sharing participants’ awareness of issues related to politics and elections, they will design an image of politician for role-playing. In the 2) “Feel and enjoy activity,” participants play a card game and experience the relationship between politicians and citizens. The 3) “Thinking activity” focuses on a theme and introduces the policies of each political party, asking participants to choose the party that most closely matches their ideas. It is structured to experience three roles in one workshop: the politicians, the public, and themselves.
After 5 preparatory workshops, two workshops were heldfor university and high school students. The results of the survey showed that some people participated in the elections as a result of the workshop, and we believe that our workshops are effective in increasing interest in politics.