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Can a constitutional monarch influence democratic preferences? Japanese emperor and the regulation of public expression: The Regulation of Public Expression in Japan

  • Susumu Annaka
  • , Gento Kato
  • Waseda University

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3   Link opens in a new tab Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: This study examines whether hereditary constitutional monarchs have any influence on democratic public opinion, focusing on the case of the Japanese emperor. Methods: A survey experiment on the regulation of public expression. This issue can be framed both as left wing (i.e., the regulation of hate speech) and right wing (i.e., the regulation of publicly funded anti-nationalistic exhibitions). Taking advantage of the dual nature of the issue, we test the effects of the emperor's endorsement on support for regulation under each ideological frame. Results: The (former) emperor's endorsement for freedom of expression does have a cross-cutting effect and decreases support for regulation. This effect is relatively small but statistically significant. Additionally, the findings provide weak evidence for the emperor's own ideological position conditioning his endorsement effect. Conclusion: Hereditary monarchs do influence democratic public opinion, and their influence can cross-cut ideology.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)699-708
Number of pages10
JournalSocial Science Quarterly
Volume103
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2022

Funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, grant number 18J10578 and 20K22079. The pre‐analysis plan for the analysis is registered at OSF https://osf.io/pkf7c (in Japanese, English translation in the Supporting Information Appendix ), and the experimental design received approval from the Academic Research Ethical Review Committee at Waseda University (approval number: 2019‐322). The replication files are available from Harvard Dataverse ( https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OOIRHH ). The authors would like to thank Munenori Kita, Masaru Kohno, Ikuo Kume, participants of the sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Electoral Studies and the Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics Research Forum (particularly Kiichiro Arai, Masaki Hata, Masaru Nishikawa, Shiro Sakaiya, Yuichiro Shimizu, Naoko Taniguchi, and Masahiro Zenkyo), and anonymous referees for their helpful comments. This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI, grant number 18J10578 and 20K22079. The pre-analysis plan for the analysis is registered at OSF https://osf.io/pkf7c (in Japanese, English translation in the Supporting Information Appendix), and the experimental design received approval from the Academic Research Ethical Review Committee at Waseda University (approval number: 2019-322). The replication files are available from Harvard Dataverse (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/OOIRHH). The authors would like to thank Munenori Kita, Masaru Kohno, Ikuo Kume, participants of the sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Electoral Studies and the Modern and Contemporary Japanese Politics Research Forum (particularly Kiichiro Arai, Masaki Hata, Masaru Nishikawa, Shiro Sakaiya, Yuichiro Shimizu, Naoko Taniguchi, and Masahiro Zenkyo), and anonymous referees for their helpful comments.

FundersFunder number
Japanese Association of Electoral Studies
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science18J10578, 20K22079
Waseda University2019-322

    Keywords

    • Japan
    • constitutional monarch
    • emperor
    • endorsement
    • freedom of expression
    • public opinion
    • survey experiment

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Social Sciences

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