Projects ·
Applications open for the 2026 Young Mayors of Japan Award
Delighted to serve again on the selection committee for the U.S.-Japan Foundation Young Mayors of Japan Award alongside Governor Toshihito Kumagai and Lin Kobayashi.
Read moreCharles T. McClean
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University
I study comparative politics, with a focus on the politics of age and Japan. My work asks why young people are so rarely elected, what changes when they are, and how population aging reshapes democracy and policymaking. I combine quasi-experimental analysis of large original datasets with survey experiments, fieldwork, and interviews in Japan. Currently, I am completing a book manuscript, Silver Democracy: Youth Representation in an Aging Japan.
Book project
Silver Democracy
Why are young people underrepresented in elected office? And what changes for policy and democracy when they win?
About the bookDataset
Japanese Municipal Elections Dataset
Candidate-level results for Japanese municipal assembly and mayoral elections from 2005 to 2025.
About JMEDNews
All news
Second piece of good news: my paper with Aksel Sundström and Daniel Stockemer, Youth Representation and Democratic Legitimacy, is now forthcoming at the British Journal…
Happy to share two pieces of good news. First, my job market paper, Does Youth Representation Matter for Social Spending?, is online at the Journal of Politics.
The Japan Forum on International Relations has released policy recommendations on deepening U.S.-Japan cooperation beyond security. My chapter looks at what aging and demographic change mean for the alliance.
I spoke with The Dispatch for this story on why U.S. politicians tend to be older than those in other democracies.