The National Diet Building (Mainichi/Masahiro Kawata)

       TOKYO -- Forty-one percent of respondents in a recent opinion poll jointly conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun and polling firm Social Survey Research Center said they wanted to vote for candidates fielded by ruling coalition parties in single-seat constituencies in the upcoming House of Representatives election, while 34% said they wanted to vote for opposition party candidates.

       In the survey carried out on Oct. 4-5, the respondents were asked about how they were going to vote in the lower house election, with the official campaign period set to start on Oct. 19 for an Oct. 31 vote. For the single-seat constituencies, 24% said they hadn't decided which candidates they would vote for.

       For the proportional representation bloc, in which eligible voters pick a political party, 34% said they would like to vote for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In the previous poll in September conducted following former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's announcement that he would be resigning, the rate of pollees choosing the LDP stood at 35%, up 11 points from the August survey. The percentage willing to choose the LDP remained about the same even after new LDP President Fumio Kishida was elected prime minister to replace Suga on Oct. 4.

       In the same bloc, the LDP was followed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), which was picked by 16% of the respondents (14% in the previous poll), 8% said they would vote for Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), up 1 point from the previous survey, 7% for the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), also up 1 point from September, followed by the LDP's junior coalition partner Komeito at 6%, also a rise of 1 point, while 2% said they would pick the Democratic Party for the People (DPFP), unchanged from the previous poll, and minor opposition Reiwa Shinsengumi at 1%, down 1 point from last month's survey. Meanwhile, 23% answered they were undecided, down 5 points from the previous poll.

       The support rate for each party stood at: 34% for the LDP, down 3 points from the previous poll; 13% for the CDP, up 3 points from September; 8% for Nippon Ishin no Kai, a rise of 3 points; 6% for the JCP, up 2 points; also 6% for Komeito, an increase of 2 points; 2% for the DPFP, up 1 point, and 1% for Reiwa Shinsengumi, down 1 point from the last survey. Twenty-eight percent said they didn't support any particular party, down 6 points from the previous poll.

       (Japanese original by Nanae Ito, Political News Department)

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