Photo/Illutration Voters listen to a candidate's speech in the mayoral election in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on April 16. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

With distrust being most prominent among younger people, 55 percent of voters said they do not trust politics, outnumbering the 44 percent who said they do, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey.

Seventy percent of respondents under 40 years old said they do not trust politics, as opposed to a little more than 40 percent among those 60 or older.

The degree of distrust was also split along political party affiliations.

As many as 74 percent of unaffiliated voters said they do not trust politics.

The ratio was 62 percent among those who support the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and 61 percent among those who back Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), another opposition party.

By comparison, the ratio was 30 percent among those who support the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and 36 percent among those who back Komeito, its junior coalition partner.

Survey questions were sent by mail to 3,000 randomly selected voters nationwide on Feb. 28. Valid responses were received from 1,967, or 66 percent.

Respondents were asked to choose from four assessments about Japanese politics.

Eleven percent said they do “not trust politics at all” and 44 percent said they do “not trust politics much.”

In contrast, 42 percent of respondents said they trust politics “to some degree” and only 2 percent said they trust it “greatly.”

The same question was asked in an Asahi Shimbun survey in spring 2020 when Shinzo Abe was prime minister and another in spring 2021 when Yoshihide Suga was prime minister. But the general negative trend was the same in both surveys.

An overwhelming 82 percent of voters said Diet members are placing priority on their own interests and those of their supporters over the interests of the entire nation.

A scant 10 percent said Diet members are putting the interests of the entire nation ahead of their own interests and those of their supporters.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they think politicians tend to focus efforts on policies that favor older people, who generally go to the polls more frequently than younger people, compared with the 43 percent who said they think otherwise.

The younger the respondents the higher the ratio of those who embrace such a view known as "silver democracy."

Seventy-nine percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 said they think politicians tend to focus efforts on policies that favor older people, far higher than the 34 percent of voters 70 or older.

As many as 80 percent of respondents said hereditary politics, in which a politician’s family member effectively succeeds the constituency or support base of their parent, is “unfavorable,” compared with only 9 percent who said it is “favorable.”

Five of the LDP lawmakers who served as prime minister over the past 20 years, including current Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, are the sons of politicians. Suga was the only exception.

Koji Nakakita, a political science professor at Chuo University, said political parties as well as organizations that traditionally support them have been debilitated by the ongoing attenuation of people’s relationships.

“As a result, unaffiliated voters are increasing, particularly among younger people, who are less integrated into networks of society,” he said.

Nakakita said unaffiliated voters, who often do not receive firsthand information from politicians and political parties and do not know about their activities, tend to harbor suspicions that politicians are only pursuing self-serving agendas.

“If their detachment from voters is leading to distrust in politics, politicians and political parties should build day-to-day relationships with voters, rather than engaging them only during elections,” he said.

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