Pacific Affairs: An International Review of Asia and the Pacific

Volume 77, No. 2

 

Democratic renewal by "Digital" Local Government in Japan
By Yasuo Takao

 

Abstract

This article examines the Japanese government's use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as tools of democratic renewal, with special reference to citizens' political engagement. It illustrates how Japanese local governments are able to integrate ICTs to further citizens' participation, and as such adds to the general argument that local governments are inherently more capable of accommodating such participation than national governments. A prominent corollary of this claim is the assumption that ICT-based technological mediation is constructing new forms of participatory democracy that may complement the representative system of government.