Active citizenship in Japan: How do Japanese citizenship teachers perceive participation in society?

This study addresses the two questions: ‘How do Japanese civics teachers perceive participation in society?’ and ‘What are the factors that influence their views on participation in society?’ For this purpose, active citizenship in this article is defined as participation in society including voting, political activism and community involvement. The dataset for this study consists of semi-structured interviews with eleven secondary school civics teachers from different parts of Japan. Participating teachers were asked about citizenship ideals in terms of identity, civic virtue, political involvement and requirement for democratic society. Results of thematic analysis suggest that the Japanese civics teachers were reluctant to participate in protests and demonstrations. Instead, actively seeking information about causes of protests and being critical about government policies are suggested as alternative approaches. Illustrating Japanese civics teachers’ perception of active citizenship for young people based on the findings from interview data, this article contributes to further understanding the conceptual diversity of active citizenship in terms of political, cultural and social contexts. Possible reasons why protesting is not a preferable option are also considered.