Youth Policy in the Hands of Whom?: A Comparative Study of Japanese Youth Policy in the Eyes of Europe

Abstract

This study attempts to clarify Japanese youth participation policies' characteristics by analyzing four national youth policy documents in the 2000s. Compared with European youth policy, the article will investigate the challenges Japanese youth policy faces.

Though recent Japanese national youth policy sees young people as active agents for society, Japan's youth participation policies mostly employ educational and volunteering approaches. Today's youth policy has reconsidered the inclination to promote voting behavior; however, the documents seldom cover new forms of the youth-led political movement and structural changes in youth policy governance. The reflection of young people's voices has recurrently been considered important over the decades. Yet Japanese youth participation policies only listen to youth via the Internet and roundtables. On the other hand, the Council of Europe's co-management system enables young people to influence the European youth policy decision-making process. Failing to conduct structural changes may lead to youth policy without young people.