Anyone interested in populism in East Asia will quickly realize that the academic discourse on the topic is as enlightening as it is confusing. The relatively few scholars who are active in this field have produced a conceptually and empirically diverse body of literature. In some of it the sheer existence of populism is contested as are its key components and consequently its definition. The phenomena labelled as Japanese, South Korean or Taiwanese manifestations of populism include a very diverse group of political actors influenced by the respective political culture and issue salience. One finding most scholars agree upon, however, is that the case of East Asian democracies is almost non-existent in comparative efforts of the international political science community. This joint project sets out to take a comparative and close look at “Populism in East Asian Democracies” (PinEAD) to understand the form populism takes in these countries.

PinEAD is led by:

Axel Klein (IN-EAST) for Japan,
Frédéric Krumbein (Tel Aviv) for Taiwan,
Hannes Mosler (IN-EAST) for South Korea

PinEAD is part of “Team Populism” (https://populism.byu.edu/)

PinEAD News

Axel Klein presents at the 2022 Annual Association of Asian Studies Conference on “Populism in East Asian Democracies: The Case of Japan”

March 24–27, 2022, Honolulu, Hawai’i

Axel Klein talks about “(The Absence of) Populism in Japan” at the European Center for Populism Studies

February 18, 2022, Brussels, Belgium

Axel Klein receives JSPS Scholarship for Field Research on Populism

Funded by a Fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Axel Klein will do field research in Japan in February and March 2022. Next to workshops and lectures, the fellowship will also be useful to strengthen the network with Japanese political scientists working on populism.