Cover of “Japan Decides 2024: The Japanese General Election,” the fifth volume in the “Japan Decides” series.
Japan’s 2024 general election for the House of Representatives marked a turning point. The long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) suffered its second-worst showing since 1955, while the far-right populist party Sanseito entered the lower house for the first time, signaling potential shifts in governance with global implications.
The fifth volume of “Japan Decides,” co-edited by Jackson School Professor Robert Pekkanen, offers a comprehensive scholarly account of this election. Pekkanen co-created the series nearly two decades ago to provide English-language analysis of Japanese elections after historic elections in 2005 and 2009. “I couldn’t really find anything in English to communicate to the students the drama and high stakes,” he said.
The latest volume guides readers from context to consequence. It examines major political parties, campaign strategies, candidate platforms, social media, and voter turnout; it also explores the election’s defining policy issues, including the Unification Church, financial scandals, women’s representation, LGBTQ+ rights, childcare, inflation, and Japan’s role in the global economy.
Producing the book required careful timing. Japan’s parliamentary system requires an election be held within four years, meaning they can happen at any point in that period. For Pekkanen and the other co-editors, this presented the obstacle of when to start work on the fifth volume.
“Every time that it looked like there might be a snap election, the co-editors exchanged nervous emails and hastily took the pulse of Japanese politics to see if an election was indeed imminent,” Pekkanen said. “Finally, we decided that we should move forward with the invitations to authors. We want to do this early enough to get the best authors and let them do their best research, but late enough that we can select the most timely and relevant topics for the chapters.”
For Pekkanen, the “Japan Decides” series represents more than academic work — it is a way to engage with the excitement and significance of Japanese elections.
“We love Japanese elections,” he said, referring to his “Japan Decides” colleagues. “They are so exciting to observe, and obviously consequential for the lives of Japanese people, as well as many around the globe. We love being able to increase the knowledge that exists in the world about these events. I learn a huge amount from every volume, and without these projects I definitely would not understand as much about Japanese politics as I do.”
However, after months of coordination, research, and editing, Pekkanen admits there is one secret wish the co-editors share: “[We] all secretly hope that there won’t be another election for a while so that we can rest,” he said.
Learn more about studying Japan in our new M.A. in East Asian Studies. The M.A. program will offer students the opportunity to develop a substantial understanding of culture, history, society, and contemporary issues across China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Applications for the 2026-2027 academic year are due Jan. 31, 2026.
