Survey Finds Most Japanese Voters Get Election News from TV

Consumption Tax the Focus for Upper House Election

A nationwide survey by Japan’s SmartNews Media Research Institute found that 68.7% of respondents either “somewhat” or “very much” trusted the mass media such as television, newspapers, or radio. The level of trust remained unchanged from the previous survey conducted in 2023.

The most common way for respondents to obtain news about politics or elections was television, at 46.5%, followed by news websites, at 17.8%, and printed newspapers and magazines, at 16.0%. Meanwhile, social media sites were the main source of information for 10.9%.

Japan’s consumption tax has become a major issue ahead of the upcoming House of Councillors election, which is set to take place this summer. In the 2023 survey, 54.5% of respondents were in favor of either maintaining or increasing the tax. However, the results for the 2025 survey show that the level of support for these options fell to 39.4%, while 54.1% wanted the consumption tax to be reduced or eliminated. By age group, people in their thirties showed the highest level of support for reducing or abolishing the tax, at 60.2%.

The breakdown of responses according to political affiliation shows that supporters of Reiwa Shinsengumi and the Democratic Party for the People were the strongest backers of reducing or abolishing the consumption tax, at 87.5% and 65.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, Liberal Democratic Party supporters were the most likely to be in favor of maintaining or increasing the consumption tax, with 57.2% of them holding this view.

Survey respondents were also asked to indicate their favorability toward each political party according to an 11-point scale, ranging from 0 (strongly oppose) to 10 (strongly support). Compared to the 2023 survey, the LDP saw a 0.8-point decline in favorability. The parties that saw the largest increase in favorability were the DPFP (up 1.0 point) and Reiwa (up 0.6 points).

The survey sample was selected based on population data from the 2020 national census. Questionnaires were mailed to voters aged 18 to 79 on January 16, and responses that arrived by March 5 were considered valid. Out of the initial sample of 4,460 people, 2,117 responses were collected, for a response rate of 47.5%.

Data Source

• Politics and Media Survey (Japanese) from SmartNews Media Research Institute, 2025.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)