ISLAMABAD: Over 80 per cent of Japanese people are not satisfied with the political climate since the House of Representatives election in October last year.
According to a recent opinion poll conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun and Waseda University’s Institute for Advanced Social Sciences, the percentage is the highest among the eight surveys conducted since 2014.
Only 18 per cent were at least somewhat satisfied.
According to The Japan News, the prior highest level of dissatisfaction was 74 per cent in the survey conducted after the 2021 lower house election.
The percentage dropped slightly to 71 per cent in the poll conducted after the 2022 House of Councillors election, but it rose by 11 points this time, the Japanese publication said.
High prices and scandals
High prices, as well as politics and money scandals involving Liberal Democratic Party factions, seem to have affected the latest survey results, it was said.
Asked about what mattered in the 2024 lower house election, 35 per cent of respondents chose the economy and employment, 14 per cent picked politics and money, 12 per cent said prices and 6 per cent said the social security system, as per the survey.
Meanwhile, 73 per cent said the dissolution of LDP factions following violations of the Political Funds Control Law would not help resolve the politics and money problem, far outnumbering the 24 per cent who said it would.
The survey was conducted by mail from November 25 to December 31 among 3,000 voters nationwide, with 1,958, or 65 per cent, responding.