Politics Pew survey: widespread dissatisfaction with democracy in Japan ahead of snap election

Japan's new PM, Ishiba, has announced a snap election for 27 October, expressing his desire for his administration to seek a public vote of confidence "as soon as possible." His party, the LDP, has governed Japan for nearly 70 years but is facing significant turmoil due to recent scandals. In light of the upcoming election, here are some essential insights regarding Japan's democracy, derived from a Pew Research Center survey of 1,003 Japanese adults conducted between 5 January and 9 March 2024. This survey took place during a slush fund scandal that led to the indictment of multiple LDP lawmakers.

The main findings were:

1. Japan is unique among highly developed democracies for having had only one governing party for the last seven decades.
2. The favourability of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party has declined significantly since 2023.
3. Most Japanese adults (56%) say they do not feel close to any political party.
4. Only around a third of Japanese adults say they are satisfied with the way democracy is working in their country today.

Read more here:

Japanese people are responsible for the poor state of the country's democracy to some extent.

One striking problem is that constituencies have bland names with numbers, such as Tokyo 14 ward. All British constituencies are named after the local area, such as Cheadle, Hazel Grove and Stockport (to name three in south Manchester), and as a result, even people not particularly interested in politics usually know the name of the constituency they live in and their local MP, unlike in Japan. Such identification helps promote grassroots activity among people more interested in politics, whereas Japan seems to discourage that by making politics seem as remote and boring as possible.