TOKYO – What motivates people to get involved in politics in their free time? How can they derive pleasure from it? In this new book publication (in German), DIJ political scientist Sebastian Polak-Rottmann analyses how people in rural Japan try to change local society through a variety of activities, such as agricultural, political, and social work.

Based on extensive fieldwork in southern Japan’s city of Aso (Kumamoto Prefecture), he concludes that mutual enjoyment is a core element of the well-being of politically active people in rural Japan.

“Wie politische Partizipation Freude bereiten kann” (How political participation can be enjoyable) is published by Iudicium as volume 67 in the DIJ Monograph series.