Photo/Illutration

More than half of voters want an administration free of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, but few see a suitable replacement among the current batch of opposition parties, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

The telephone survey conducted on May 18-19 asked voters nationwide whether they want an LDP-led administration to continue governing Japan or a non-LDP administration to take over.

Fifty-four percent of respondents said they prefer a future administration of parties other than the LDP, compared with 33 percent who chose an LDP-led administration.

Support for a non-LDP administration appears to be growing.

In the previous survey in April, 48 percent of voters chose a non-LDP administration, slightly more than 39 percent who preferred an LDP-led administration.

In a survey conducted in July, voters were almost equally split, with 45 percent seeking a non-LDP administration and 41 percent in favor of an LDP-led administration.

The latest survey showed voters are critical about the long-governing LDP, which has been repeatedly ensnared in money-in-politics scandals.

Asked if they believe the LDP can change its ways, 77 percent of respondents answered in the negative, compared with 17 percent who answered in the positive.

The LDP on May 17 submitted a bill to the Diet to revise the Political Fund Control Law after the party became engulfed in a scandal centered around unreported revenues from fund-raising parties.

Sixty-two percent of respondents said they disapprove of the party’s efforts for the legal revisions, compared with 29 percent who said they approve.

Among those who were not impressed with the party’s efforts, 66 percent chose a non-LDP administration.

However, criticism of the LDP does not necessarily translate into support for opposition parties, according to the survey.

Only 19 percent of voters said they expect the opposition parties to be a counterbalancing force against the LDP, compared with 73 percent who said they cannot expect such a balance.

Even among those who prefer a non-LDP administration, 69 percent said they cannot expect opposition parties to serve as a counterbalance to the LDP.

In the latest survey, the Cabinet approval rating was 24 percent, down slightly from 26 percent in April, while the disapproval rating was unchanged at 62 percent.

The LDP’s support rating was 24 percent, compared with 26 percent in April.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan garnered 6 percent of support, while Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) received 4 percent.

Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, and the Japanese Communist Party both gained 3 percent.

Support ratings for the four parties were unchanged from April.

The survey was conducted through calls to randomly generated telephone numbers. There were 394 valid responses from voters contacted by fixed telephones, or 46 percent of the total, and 600 responses from those contacted by cellphones, or 36 percent.

Related News