The Liberal Democratic Party’s strategy of electing Sanae Takaichi as president to win back supporters who had drifted to new conservative parties appears to be paying off, a survey showed.

The number of voters who say they would vote for the LDP if a national election were held now has risen by roughly 40 percent over the past six months, according to the survey.

Much of the increase comes from people who had backed smaller right-leaning parties. And most of these voters have expressed a favorable view of Prime Minister Takaichi.

The nationwide survey, the 11th in an ongoing series that started in February, was conducted jointly by The Asahi Shimbun and the University of Osaka from Nov. 25 to 28. It received responses from about 1,400 people.

Researchers tracked changes in preferred party among 1,233 individuals who had also participated in the April-May and June-July surveys.

The proportion of respondents selecting the LDP rose from 17.4 percent in June-July to 24.9 percent in the latest survey.

Among those who switched to the LDP, an overwhelming 93.7 percent said they have a favorable impression of Takaichi.

By contrast, only 35.3 percent of those who stayed away from the LDP said they viewed Takaichi positively. Of those who consistently supported the LDP across both surveys, 76.8 percent expressed favorable views of the prime minister.

FLOWING BACK FROM EMERGING PARTIES

The data indicates that voters who like Takaichi have flowed back to the LDP, while those who do not like her continue to back other parties.

The largest inflows into the LDP came from Sanseito, the Democratic Party for the People and the Conservative Party of Japan.

Among supporters of these parties in June-July, 28.9 percent, 14.1 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively, had shifted to the LDP by November.

As a result, support for Sanseito fell by 1.5 points to 4.7 percent, while support for the DPP declined by 2.1 points to 8.8 percent.

The DPP had surged earlier in the year, reaching 15 percent in April-May and briefly approaching the LDP’s lead. But it now ranks fourth behind the LDP, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party).

Nippon Ishin, which recently joined the governing coalition, rose by 2 points to 9.5 percent, as voters from various parties shifted their support. Komeito, which left the coalition, remained unchanged at 1.9 percent.

The CDP saw a sharp decline of 4.1 points to 10.2 percent, though it remains the largest opposition party, with Ishin close behind.

The Japanese Communist Party slipped by 0.7 point to 3 percent, while Reiwa Shinsengumi dropped 1 point to 3.5 percent. The CPJ fell by 1.8 points to 1.9 percent.

Respondents were also asked to rate their view of Takaichi on a scale of 0 to 10.

The share selecting the positive range of 6 to 10 was highest among the CPJ supporters, at 92.9 percent, followed by LDP supporters, at 84.3 percent, and Sanseito’s 82.1 percent.

Nippon Ishin supporters followed, at 69.1 percent, and then the DPP, at 60.2 percent.

Favorability was much lower among supporters of Komeito, at 33.3 percent, the CDP, at 20 percent, and the JCP, at 14.6 percent.

MEDIA DISTRUST

The survey also examined levels of trust in the media and government and found that those who view the prime minister positively tend to have a negative view of the media.

On a scale of 1 to 5, Takaichi’s strongest supporters rated their trust in the media at an average of 1.9. Those with a neutral view of the prime minister rated media trust at 2.3, while those with the strongest dislike of Takaichi gave a 2.2 ranking to the media.

An opposite trend was seen concerning trust in the government.

Those who most strongly disliked Takaichi gave the government an average ranking of 1.7 for trust, while those most strongly in favor of her rated their government trust at 2.4.

Previous surveys have shown that supporters of newer parties, such as Sanseito, the CPJ and Reiwa Shinsengumi, tend to have low trust in both media and government and are more likely to agree with conspiracy theories.

The latest results suggest that high levels of media distrust are also present among those who firmly support Takaichi.

THE ISHIBA-TAKAICHI SHIFT

Asako Miura, a professor of social psychology at the University of Osaka, noted that many habitual LDP voters did not favor the more moderate former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and had drifted toward the DPP and staunchly conservative Sanseito in the July Upper House election.

She added that the emergence of conservative Takaichi as prime minister appears to have brought many of these voters back to the LDP.