1st Tokyo Youth Democracy Forum

June 9–12, 2024
Tokyo

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.

Accordion Content

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 FutureFFF

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