A person casts a vote in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election at a polling station in Chuo Ward, on July 4, 2021. (Mainichi/Ririko Maeda)

       TOKYO -- Fifty-six percent of voters in the July 4 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election said they oppose holding the Olympics and Paralympics as planned, while 37% said they support the games going ahead this summer, according to an online survey conducted by multiple media outlets.

       A little over 50% of those who voted for candidates fielded by regional political party Tomin First no Kai, or Tokyoites First Party, were not the party's main supporters but those with no particular party affiliation, suggesting the party's appeal to a wider scope of voters.

       The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), which have been calling for re-postponing or canceling the Tokyo Games, similarly gained support from those who did not support a particular party.

       One-third of the voters surveyed said they didn't support any particular party or political group. Broken down by voting patterns, 27% of these voters backed Tomin First candidates, 15% voted for CDP candidates and 14% selected candidates fielded by the JCP. The majority of votes each of these parties garnered were from non-affiliated voters.

       The fact that Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike joined Tomin First candidates' campaigns toward the end of the official campaigning period and a collaboration between the JCP and CDP in some constituencies are believed to have affected the results. In contrast, 67% of votes the central government-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won were from those who supported the party.

       Among those who answered that they were against holding the Summer Games as planned, 23% voted for Tomin First candidates, 18% voted for those fielded by the LDP, 18% for JCP candidates and 17% for CDP candidates, among others. Among those who said they supported the games going ahead, 41% voted for the LDP.

       The rate of votes won by each party with all constituencies combined stood at 28% for the LDP, 24% for Tomin First, 12% for the CDP, 12% for the JCP, 11% for Komeito which is part of the ruling coalition with the LDP in the National Diet, and 4% for Nippon Ishin no Kai (the Japan Innovation Party), among others.

       The survey was conducted jointly by the Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc., Fuji Television Network Inc. and the Social Survey Research Center on July 4. Survey subjects were randomly selected through mobile carrier NTT Docomo Inc.'s "premiere panel" service, and mainly consisted of Tokyo residents who use Docomo cell phones and have registered with its "d point club" membership. Subjects were asked to participate in the survey via email, and 17,729 responded.

       (Japanese original by Shinji Kurokawa, Tokyo City News Department)

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