Face-to-Face Interaction with Government Officials and Its Effects on the Political Attitudes on the Civil Society Organizational Members: The Study from Japan

This study attempts to answer the question: When do civil society organizations (CSOs) function as a bridge between the informal political sphere and the formal political
sphere by changing the political attitudes of their members? To answer this question, I used the Japanese General Social Survey 2003 (JGSS 2003). My main findings involve the effect
of the face-to-face interactions that the CSO members have with government officials. The findings suggest that while CSO
members without such interactions are no more psychologically politically engaged than non-members, the members with such
interactions are. The findings have an empirical importance to those who study Japan since the country is currently undergoing
CSO–government relationship reform and the number of CSOs is growing rapidly in the recent years. The study also has a theoretical
importance to civil society scholars since this study attempts to unfold the mechanism in which CSOs’ positive effects on
the members’ political attitudes are produced.