Engaging the Politically Inactive

Abstract

Japan has seen few political protests over the past 40 years despite worsening social problems including wage stagnation, job insecurity, and a rapidly aging society. Those protests that have occurred, including demonstrations against nuclear energy following the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, have neither been representative of the population as a whole nor have they resulted in meaningful political change. In combination with research on the lack of engagement in politics by younger people and salarymen and the resiliency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, this chapter first analyzes the films Linda Linda Linda (2005) and Shall We Dance? (1996) for how their musical themes of rebellion and individuality are juxtaposed with the pressure to conform at two points in Japanese people's lives: graduating high school and purchasing a home, respectively. It then proposes that music in film represents a new landscape for social and political engagement in Japan.