The Tomin First no Kai has been gaining ground on the leading Liberal Democratic Party, among Tokyo voters who will cast ballots at the upcoming Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on July 4, a Yomiuri Shimbun poll has found.
According to the poll of Tokyoites conducted between Friday and Sunday, those planning to vote for LDP candidates accounted for 23%, followed by the ruling Tomin party's 17%, the Komeito's 9%, and the 8% each received by the Japanese Communist Party and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, while 22% of people polled preferred not to say.
In an earlier Yomiuri survey conducted from May 28 to May 30, the figures for LDP and Tomin candidates were 30% and 11% respectively.
The approval rating of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike also rose to 59% this month, up 2 points from the May survey.
When asked how they felt about holding the Tokyo Games with a limited number of spectators, 57% of respondents said they did not approve, outstripping the 35% who approved. Among the nays, "Concern about the spread of the novel coronavirus," at 95%, was the most-frequently cited reason for opposing the Games with spectators, followed by dissatisfaction with "insufficient explanation by the central and metropolitan governments regarding infection control measures," at 84%.
While both the LDP and Komeito are in favor of allowing spectators at the Games, Tomin candidates have campaigned on a party platform that pledges to bar spectators.
The LDP's slip in the polls may have been precipitated by the central government deciding to hold the Games with spectators, despite growing concern over the novel coronavirus' spread.
As the hospitalization of Tokyo Gov. Koike due to overwork has drawn attention to Tomin, a party that she founded and now serves as a special advisor, the party's pledge to hold the Games without spectators is also believed to have helped broaden its base.
However, public opinion in Tokyo remained sharply split on the Tokyo metropolitan government's handling of the novel coronavirus crisis, with 48% of respondents saying they approved of the government's response, compared to 45% who disapproved.
The Yomiuri Shimbun conducted the survey using random digit dialing to landlines and mobile phones. The survey reached 1,648 households with at least one eligible voter. Valid responses were received from 963 people, for a response rate of 58%.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
