Appearance on NHK World News 2024: “The Year of Elections and Democracy” [in Japanese]

On December 27, 2024, an article featuring Professor Maiko Ichihara of the Graduate School of Law, who appeared on NHK’s World News 2024 program titled “Where Is Democracy Headed?”, was published. The program reflected on the global elections held in 2024 and discussed the future of democracy. In the first half of the program, the discussion focused on reviewing election trends across various regions and examining the impact of social media on elections. The second half shifted to exploring the fairness of elections. Professor Ichihara emphasized that ensuring free and fair elections requires the safeguarding of “civil liberties.” However, the program highlighted the ongoing suppression of media and civil society in many countries since the mid-2000s. Professor Ichihara further pointed out that while customs and norms have historically supported democratic institutions, the erosion of these “soft guardrails” poses a significant risk to the rapid weakening of democracy.  Professor Ichihara underscored the need to strengthen both “horizontal accountability” and “vertical accountability” across nations as key issues for the future of democracy. Finally, Professor Ichihara mentioned that it is necessary to avoid having democracy become entangled in the discourse of war, rather than discussing democracy in terms of the structure of conflict.

https://www.nhk.jp/p/kokusaihoudou/ts/8M689W8RVX/blog/bl/pNjPgEOXyv/bp/pwm8g8kmxM/

https://www.nhk.jp/p/kokusaihoudou/ts/8M689W8RVX/blog/bl/pNjPgEOXyv/bp/p8O9j93YyB/

https://www.nhk.jp/p/kokusaihoudou/ts/8M689W8RVX/blog/bl/pNjPgEOXyv/bp/pjxPYPRlNj/