ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 presents the results from the randomized survey of Oita citizens’ political attitudes, opinions, and experiences with politics. The survey showed mixed results in attitudes about political participation. Whereas Oita citizens’ support of authoritarian values is lower than the national average in Japan, the strongest correlations between indicators of participation were found between support for authoritarianism and trust and satisfaction with the government. Moreover, results for not participating or wanting to participate further were mixed. When respondents were asked why they had not attended town meetings, the most popular reason, 40%, was due to not knowing about the meetings. When asked if they would want to participate more, the ratio was 2:1 wanting want to participate versus not wanting to participate. Of those not wanting to participate, however, the reason was due to low efficacy – feeling that they could not affect change.
