In this paper, I aim to present the results of an online survey project conducted in March 2025, focusing on Japanese citizens’ political attitudes. The questionnaire sought to measure respondents' attitudes regarding key populist tenets such as anti-elitism, anti-pluralism, other drivers of populist support such as financial insecurity, as well as affinity towards specific policies supported by populist parties in Japan. The survey design was based on the battery developed by Akkerman et al. (2014), augmenting it with additional survey items on issues such as immigration. Hieda et al. (2021) suggested a limited applicability of the populist attitude framework in the Japanese case. However, recent developments such as the rise of Sanseito radically changed the Japanese political landscape, providing relevance for revisiting the issue. Based on the survey results, the prevalence of populist attitudes among the Japanese population can be better understood. Using the information on policy preferences, latent support for current populist parties can be better gauged, as well as trends in Japanese populism compared to other country cases. Policies deemed radical by the political mainstream, such as constitutional amendment, might be significantly more popular than previously thought. The survey utilized manipulation checks to filter out unreliable respondents. In the end, approximately 3,000 valid responses were obtained, lending the sample a high degree of representativeness. The rise of populism poses a great challenge to democracy globally. Studying populist attitudes is a key research area in tackling it.

Authors:
Peter Balint Szabo, Nagoya University, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
As a first-year doctoral student at GSID, my research focuses on populism, authoritarianism, and their effect on political participation. The current project uses a survey-based research design, analyzing Japanese citizens' political attitudes.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-balint-szabo-4708a22aa/

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