He may have lost the Tokyo gubernatorial election Sunday, but Toshio Tamogami appears to have won over younger voters who favored the hawkish former Air Self-Defense Force general more than middle-aged and elderly voters did, according to media exit polls.

However, experts caution it's too early to conclude that young people are shifting to the right.

An Asahi Shimbun exit poll of 7,466 people at 180 polling stations showed 24 percent of those in their 20s cast ballots for Tamogami. In comparison, human rights lawyer Kenji Utsunomiya drew 19 percent and former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa 11 percent.