Conspiracy Theories

We present a case study of Sanseitō, a fringe Japanese political party that openly embraces conspiracy theory narratives but has nonetheless been very successful in fundraising and attracting volunteer support. We examine the party’s strategy, especially with regards to the media ecosystem, and the contextual factors which set it apart from similar parties overseas.

Using an original two-wave panel survey fielded before and after the US 2020 election, we investigate the relationship between populist attitudes, conspiracy beliefs, and the propensity to justify political violence. We find that conspiracy beliefs are associated with higher justification of violence, while the relationship with populist attitudes is mixed, depending on whether people believe in conspiracy theories or not.

This article examines the prevalence of conspiracy theory beliefs among Japanese citizens using data from electoral surveys since 2019.

This study examines the structure and identity of the groups who authored and disseminated far-right conspiracy narratives in the days immediately following the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in July 2022.

This conference paper presented the initial results of a study into the propagation of conspiracy theories on Japanese social media following the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo in July 2022.