Event Report: Would Japanese Voters Support Non-Japanese Candidates?

On January 31, 2020, The Centre for the Study of Global Japan hosted a talk on voting experiments in Japan delivered by Go Murakami, an Associate Professor from the College of Law at Ritsumeikan University in Japan. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Toronto, Mississauga.

Professor Murakami presented his research on voting behaviour in Japan as it relates to the topic of ethnicity. The question leading his research is, "would Japanese voters support non-Japanese candidates?" in an election for public office. Professor Murakami explained his methodology, his reasoning for selecting Japan as an area of study, and he discussed the importance of this research as something that has not been studied before. Overall, the presentation was informative and offered an interesting perspective into how ethnicity can come to influence voting behaviour in Japan.

The Centre would like to thank Professor Murakami and all attendees for their engaged participation. We also thank our co-sponsor, the Japan Foundation for their support of this event.

To learn more about Professor Murakami and his research, please visit the following link:

http://research-db.ritsumei.ac.jp/Profiles/112/0011138/prof_e.html