Japan Press Weekly

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2016 April 27 - May 10 TOP3 [POLITICS]

Majority in survey: fielding joint opposition candidates is ‘good’ decision

A survey conducted by Kyodo News Service on April 29 and 30 shows that more than half of the respondents rated opposition parties’ decision to field joint candidates to revoke the security legislation and bring back constitutionalism as “good” or “relatively good” .

In the same survey, nearly 60% said they “oppose” constitutional amendments under Abe’s initiative.

Regarding joint candidates put up by the opposition alliance in the July Upper House election, those who positively responded accounted for 52.6%, while 39.1% gave negative responses. As for the Abe government’s attempt to revise the present Constitution, 56.5% of the respondents “oppose” and 33.4% “support”. Even among supporters of the ruling partner, Komei Party, 59.2% expressed opposition to constitutional reform as called for by Abe.

Asked if they take into account the issue of the war laws allowing Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense abroad as an element in choosing which candidate they will vote for, 59.5% answered, “Yes”.

The percentage of those who oppose the planned increase in the consumption tax rate to 10% in April 2017 rose by 2.3 points from the previous month to 66.9%.

The survey also indicates that 57.0% think the Abenomics economic policy is contributing to the widening of economic inequalities. In contrast, 34.6% answered his policy is “not” causing the widening gap. The Cabinet disapproval rating stood at 40.3%, 0.8 points higher than the previous month. The most popular reason was that they “cannot expect” anything from Abenomics, reaching 35.3%, up 9.5 points from the last poll.