Abstract
Having become the majority, the elderly exploit young people and the next generation. This is the problem of the so-called silver democracy. Can democracy fully function in an environment where the population is declining? We consider the changes necessary to avoid such future intergenerational conflicts.
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Notes
- 1.
Cabinet Office 2015.
- 2.
MHW 1990.
- 3.
- 4.
See Olson 1965. For example, where the objective of a group ends up not being achieved when there are a large number of members because it becomes difficult to create or maintain the group with the objective of securing political and economic benefits.
- 5.
Cabinet Office 2004.
- 6.
Interview conducted by author, personal communication, May 14, 2014.
- 7.
Nikkei 2012.
- 8.
Makoto Ato, personal communication, May 14, 2014.
- 9.
Iwabuchi, Katsuyoshi, personal communication, May 14, 2014.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
The Liaison Council for Ministries and Agencies concerning the Development of an Environment in Which Children Are Born and Nurtured Healthily was established under the Cabinet Secretariat in 1990. On the basis of the “Compilation” published by the Council, the Child Care Leave Act was enacted and support was provided for balancing work and childcare. These measures were later expanded as the “Angel Plan.”
- 12.
The Gold Plan, officially the Ten-Year Strategy for Promoting Health and Welfare of the Elderly, was enacted against the background of the rapid progression of aging. It was aimed at developing infrastructure and human resources for in-home welfare as well as developing public facilities for nursing care (IPSS 2014; MHW 1989).
- 13.
Furukawa, Teijiro, personal communication, January 15, 2015.
- 14.
The Basic Orientation of Future Measures to Support Childcare (called the Angel Plan) established in 1994 highlighted support for mothers who had babies and their families. Priority measures under this plan were support for balancing work and childcare (e.g., widespread establishment of workplace crèches) and nurseries that match the various needs of users (e.g., more facilities that provide care after 6 p.m. and facilities that accept zero to two-year-olds) (MHW 1994).
- 15.
For a while after the end of World War II, the Supreme Court’s determinations regarding the “disparities in the value of one vote” were very lenient. Since 1976, when the Supreme Court first issued a judgment on this matter, judgments were issued that declared unconstitutionality or “state of unconstitutionality” using a four-to-one disparity as a rule of thumb. This meant that judgment was issued in 1986 that declared a 2.92-to-1 disparity as “constitutional.” However, from 2009 on, the Supreme Court has gradually become more strict, as stricter decisions have been coming down, such as a judgment declaring that a larger than twofold disparity is a “state of unconstitutionality.” This trend can also be seen in high court judgments as well.
- 16.
Cabinet Office 2013.
- 17.
Fukushima, Mizuho, Hirano, Hirofumi, Genba, Kōichirō, Okazaki, Tomiko, Yosano, Kaoru, Renhō, Okada, Katsuya, Nakagawa, Masaharu, Komiyama, Yoko, Nakatsuka, Ikko.
- 18.
Ferguson 2012.
- 19.
Of course, this fear is tragically embodied in the tyranny of the National Convention during the French Revolution and the rise of Nazi Party under the Weimar Constitution. Post-revolution confusion in France led to the revival of the Empire, and the Nazi Party experience saw the introduction of “fighting democracy” in Germany.
- 20.
This appeared in its most prominent form in the proletariat revolutions of non-democratic nations.
- 21.
Capital in the Twenty-First Century was first published in French in 2013, then in English and Japanese translations in the next year.
- 22.
Piketty also stated in a symposium held in Japan (hosted by Asahi Shimbun and the French Embassy on January 29, 2015) that a declining birthrate exacerbates disparity and there is a need for long-term population growth.
- 23.
Since families are to be found in every society, they are not usually purposely classified into middle groups and social capital, but their impact on democracy is much larger than normal middle groups.
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Sota, K. (2018). The Demographic Issue and Silver Democracy. In: Funabashi, Y. (eds) Japan’s Population Implosion. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4983-5_7
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