Demographic ageing, rising public debt, and growing investment backlogs confront governments with difficult trade-offs between fiscal restraint, public services, and intergenerational fairness. Existing fiscal frameworks, however, often struggle to generate public support for long-term policy choices.

This talk introduces Future Design (FD), an innovative participatory policymaking approach developed in Japan that enables citizens to deliberate as representatives of future generations. Drawing on concrete municipal-level applications in budget planning and strategic investment, it shows how FD has been used to reframe fiscal trade-offs, strengthen future-oriented thinking, and enhance the democratic legitimacy of long-term decisions.

The discussion then offers an initial, exploratory perspective on how the core principles of FD might inform ongoing European debates on fiscal governance and intergenerational justice. Rather than proposing direct institutional transfer, it highlights the opportunities and constraints involved in adapting future-oriented participatory practices to European democratic and policy settings.

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