Reinterpretation of Youth Participation : Longitudinal and International Comparative Study on Youth Policy in Sweden and Japan

Abstract: There is a growing concerns about reconstructing youth policy in many parts of the world in reflection to the issue on youth. Especially, in the post industrialized countries such as Sweden and Japan, young people's participation became one of the prioritized theme of national youth policy. Despite the implementation of youth policy and local practices in regards to youth participation in both of the countries, there is a clear difference in young people's notion and behavior in participation into society. The paper attempted to answer a question: what is the factor that shapes young people's different notion on participation? This qualitative study had investigated modern national youth policy documents in Sweden and Japan with focus on youth participation. Thematic contents analysis was employed as a methodology of this research in order to conduct comparative analysis. To grab context of youth participation in the respective countries, key concepts: youth participation and youth policy as well as historical development of youth policy in each countries were described. Analysis with self-organized framework found that the two countries shares several commonalities in youth policy such as rights perspectives, cross sectorial approach, social inclusion of risky young people and promotion of independence. However, policies in reality for participation of young people are implemented in differently, which reflects different recognition on youth participation in the contexts of the respective countries.