Recognizing the critical role of youth in creating and upholding healthy democratic societies, JCIE hosted its inaugural Tokyo Youth Democracy Forum on the theme of “The Role of Asian Youth in Achieving a Healthy Society: Democracy and the Digital Frontier.” The Forum brought together over 20 youth leaders from Japan and across Asia, including Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, for four days of intensive meetings and workshop discussions, where they developed an action plan and shared concrete strategies and solutions to some of the challenges they identified in using digital tools to promote youth voices in the democratic process.
The program began with a workshop where participants were divided into three groups to discuss the following topics: 1) Civic Education in the Digital Age, 2) Youth Voices and Political Responses – The Role of Digital Tools, and 3) How Youth Cope with Information Overload in the Digital Age. The selection of these topics was informed by the results of a survey on “Interests and Attitudes Toward Politics amongst Younger Generation in 10 Asian Countries” carried out by JCIE in late 2023.
On June 12, at the conclusion of the Forum , JCIE held an international symposium at one of the Japanese Diet’s office buildings, where participants had the opportunity to share their findings and conclusions from the working group discussions with Diet members from multiple parties. They also presented their overall action plan where participants of the forum committed to 1) Build Solidarity through Developing a Cross Border Youth Democracy Network and 2) Strengthen Civic Education through Sharing Lessons Across the Region. The full action plan can be downloaded below.
Co-Facilitators (Japan) | |
Chikako Kodama | Ph.D Candidate, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University |
Yuko Shibata | Consultant on Humanitarian Assistance |
Cambodia | |
Saroeun Soeung | Executive Director, The NGO Forum on Cambodia |
An Vannak | Program Manager for the Rainbow Advocacy Team; University student |
India | |
Ambar Kumar Ghosh | Associate Fellow, Observer Research Foundation |
Indonesia | |
Mouliza Kristopher Donna Sweinstani | Head of the Political Party Studies research team, Political Research Center of BRIN (Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency) |
Gemintang Kejora Mallarangeng | Activist, Democrat Party |
Malaysia | |
Mohammad Alshatri | Secretary General, Liga Rakyat Demokratik; Managing Coordinator, Pusat Pembangunan Rakyat |
Philippines | |
Julia Mariano | Spokesperson, Migrante International, Taiwan chapter |
Justine Balane | National Chairperson, Akbayan Youth |
Korea | |
Hansu Park | Research Associate, East Asia Institute |
Sohee Yang | Founder, VALID; Youth lead, Community of Democracies |
Taiwan | |
Leah Lin | Executive Director, Asia Citizen Future Association |
Thailand | |
Kittituch Sriamrung | Project Coordinator, Thai Anti-Corruption Coalition (TACC), People’s Empowerment Foundation |
Warangkhana Dhongthong | Activist, We Watch Thailand |
Japan | |
Noa Horiguchi | Co-Founder & CEO, Classroom Adventure |
Zentaro Imai | Co-founder & Engineer, Classroom Adventure |
Wataru Ishikawa | Co-Representative, Japan-Myanmar Future Creative Association (JMFCA) (partial participation) |
Kodama Kadoya | Organizer, Fridays For Future（FFF） |
Nicola Kawawa | Member, Policy Advocacy Division, Japan Youth Platform for Sustainability (JYPS); Student, Faculty of Law, Tohoku University |
Aomi Miura | Head, Policy Advocacy Division, Japan Youth Platform for Sustainability (JYPS) (partial participation) |
Suzuka Nakamura | Co-founder, Fridays For Future (FFF) |
Suzuka Nakamura | Co-founder, KNOW NUKES TOKYO (partial participation) |
Jinshiro Motoyama | Ph.D Candidate, Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University |
Yuki Murohashi | Representative Director, Japan Youth Council (JYC) (partial participation) |
Luna Serigano | Member, Gender Issue Committee, Japan Youth Council (JYC) (partial participation) |
Yuta Takahashi | Representative Director, Association Katawara (partial participation) |
United States | |
Stephen McHugh | Program Officer, JCIE USA |
