It’s no secret there are not enough young people turning up to vote. Take, for example, the United States. Roughly half of Americans vote in any given election and among those ages 18 to 29 the number drops to just above 30%. And when turning to overseas voters, the percentage of eligible voters who actually send in their votes is a staggering 4%. When taking into account these two demographics, the see that the number of young people living overseas who actually vote is negligible.
Earlier this year, students at Waseda University got together to do something about the lack of younger voters and created the group, Student Voters Abroad — a student-led group aimed at helping foreign students living in Japan get registered to vote in their home country. Here’s what Justine Ogawa, the founder of the SVA, had to say about the group.
What inspired you to create Student Voters Abroad?
The idea of creating a student organization first came when I was scrolling through the ridiculous headlines on my newsfeed. This pent up frustration with all that was happening around the world had burst, and I thought that there had to be something that I could do to enact change. So I posted on a Waseda University facebook group page about creating a new student club to mobilize young voters, and immediately got responses from other people saying that they wanted to help out. It was great because we were all on the same page from the get-go.
What are SVA’s main goals?
SVA’s main goal is to promote democratic participation among young people and students. Our focus is largely on foreign students living in Japan to get them to vote in their home country’s elections by making the voting process easier. We’ve created a regular newsletter to send out to those on our mailing list which includes updates about upcoming elections, bullet points of the policy agendas of potential candidates, as well as information on where and how they can register to vote based on their country’s overseas voting laws.
We’ve also created a website where SVA members, many of them writers, will post blogs and articles about political issues that interest them. The website exists to facilitate discussion and to encourage students to voice themselves.
Is participation limited to Waseda students?
Participation is not limited to Waseda students. Anyone living here in Japan is welcome to get involved with SVA, and basically anyone with a working email account can sign up for our mailing list to receive our newsletter. We also don’t discriminate based on age and political leanings, whether you fall left or right on the spectrum. What we wish for is that more people get out to vote.
Why is it important for students to register to vote (and of course, to actually vote)?
It’s important for students to get registered and actually vote because we’re really the generation that is most responsible for the world ahead. We have to elect leaders and representatives that reflect our values and will work in our interest. And democracies don’t work without voting. So I consider it a personal responsibility to do so. I know some people object to voting, whether it’s based on moral grounds or a certain ambivalence about the process, but I really believe that if more people get involved, the more we can really achieve positive and effectual change. So get out and vote!
Learn how you can get involved by…
- Joining the Student Voters Abroad group on Facebook.
- Signing up to receive SVA’s regular newsletter.
- Checking out SVA’s website.