LDP Scandal Has Negative Effect on Young Japanese Voters

The Nippon Foundation regularly conducts surveys to gain better understanding of the opinions held by young people aged 17 to 19 years old. In a recent survey, when asked about the slush fund scandal involving Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, 46.0% of young women responded that they “have heard about it,” while only 25.9% said they “know the details.” In contrast, 35.3% of young men “know the details” and 38.4% have “heard about it.”

When those who indicated they knew about the scandal in detail were further asked if they thought the Diet members concerned were fulfilling their duty of accountability to the public, more than 70% of both young men and women answered “No.”

Of the 640 respondents who said they would vote at elections in the future, 33.6% in total answered that it was because they wished to “express disapproval of the party/candidate in question” or “express support for parties other than the one in question.”

On the other hand, of the 133 people who did not intend to vote, 33.1% said it was because they had “no intention to vote in the first place” and a further 27.8% responded that they “have an overall distrust of politics.” Other reasons given included “because all of the parties are no good,” “I don’t care what happens in this society,” and “I can’t be bothered,” revealing that they did not want to actively express their opinions through voting.

The thinking of 32.8% of respondents was that “the issue of political funding should be pursued further,” with a similar percentage believing other issues needed to be focused on.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)