In the aftermath of Sunday’s general election, the Democratic Party for the People, a small party that only had seven seats prior to the Lower House's dissolution on Oct. 9, is leveraging its newly acquired influence in negotiations for a new parliamentary majority.
Mostly known for its ties with private-sector unions before the election, the DPP quadrupled its seats to 28 and secured over 6.17 million votes under the proportional representation block, doubling its previous score and outplaying more established parties such as Komeito and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP).
The DPP election gains can be traced to two different factors: its youth-oriented policies and skillful use of social media platforms.
“The DPP’s policies appealed to me as the most concrete and feasible,” said a 22-year-old engineering student at Waseda University who voted for the party. “They’re not advocating for big changes, but rather improving what can be improved, for example fiscal policy.”
A 21-year-old geography student at Meiji University concurred, saying, “Other opposition parties seem only interested in criticizing. I didn’t want to vote for the LDP this time, so I chose the DPP.”
Post-election polls conducted by several news outlets show that the DPP was the most popular choice among voters in their 20s. The party won 26% of such votes under proportional representation, according to surveys by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun.
The Asahi found the party on par with the Liberal Democratic Party among voters in their 30s, and No. 2 among those between the ages of 18 and 20.
Throughout the electoral campaign, DPP leader Yuichiro Tamaki actively focused on youth issues, highlighting the day-to-day challenges young people face in the country.
“The DPP will work to make politics something that works for the youth and working people, not something that destroys them,” Tamaki said in a debate.
The DPP’s electoral tagline — “We’ll raise your take-home pay” — promised voters the party would work toward raising disposable income rather than merely salaries, in a bid to address mounting dissatisfaction with what are seen as imbalances in the current fiscal and the social security system, seen as burdensome for young generations.
Abolishing hurdles preventing spouses and dependent workers — such as university students still living with their parents — from increasing their disposable income by raising the income tax exemption threshold formed the centerpiece of the DPP’s economic program, together with tax cuts to spur consumption.
Narrowing down its focus to concrete measures aimed at improving the livelihoods of students and young working adults appears to have paid off, said Daisuke Hayashi, an associate professor at Urawa University involved in civic education projects.
“The ratio of students who need to pay off their scholarships is increasing, and the hurdles they face if they want to earn more money are big issues for young people,” said Hayashi, who added that a certain resistance toward change might have played a role in the voting trend.
“Today’s university students lack any experience of a change in government, so they tend to be status quo-oriented, politically. The feeling of rejection toward the LDP is not as strong,” Hayashi said. “In such a context, a more conservative option like the DPP is seen as a safer choice.”
Early polls have shown that parties that made political reform and their opposition to the LDP the core of their political platforms — such as the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP) and the JCP — were comparatively more popular among older voters.
While other party leaders spent considerable time condemning the LDP over its slush funds scandal, Tamaki relegated it to a secondary concern and prioritized more practical day-to-day issues.
The DPP also chose the appropriate medium for reaching young voters.
In the last few years, the party and Tamaki, himself, significantly increased their social media presence. Subscribers to the party’s official YouTube channel surpassed 100,000 on election day, and have registered a 34% increase since then.
While the figure is still far behind that of Reiwa Shinsengumi, whose YouTube channel boasts over 329,000 subscribers, Tamaki’s personal YouTube channel has more than 326,000 subscribers, by far the most among party leaders, exceeding even Reiwa Shinsengumi’s Taro Yamamoto, a former actor.
On Monday night, Tamaki’s first YouTube live talk after the vote amassed over half a million views. YouTube Shorts on the party’s YouTube official channel, meanwhile, have been viewed thousands of times.
As evident from former Akitakata Mayor Shinji Ishimaru’s campaign for the position of Tokyo governor and former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s bid for the LDP presidency, mastering social media has become essential for winning over young voters.
Ishimaru, himself, made an appearance at the DPP’s last rally in Tokyo on Saturday. While he didn’t speak in support of the DPP directly, it’s conceivable that his attendance brought the party more than a handful of additional votes.
The next few weeks will show whether the party will be able to overcome the post-election frenzy surrounding it, capitalize on its popularity and put pressure on the LDP to implement some of its key policies.
This week, the party imposed its policy priorities on a weakened LDP — which lost over 50 seats on Sunday — while also maintaining its foothold in the opposition.
After a meeting with the CDP — the largest opposition party, with 148 seats — on Friday morning, DPP Secretary-General Kazuya Shimba told reporters his party will seek to cooperate with the CDP on issues such as political reform.
”We are maintaining an equal distance from each party,” he said. “Just as we confirmed with the LDP, we’ll also collaborate with the CDP on a case-by-case basis.”
However, the party’s decision to vote for its leader, Tamaki, in a parliamentary ballot to name the prime minister later this month is widely being regarded as a concession to the LDP in exchange for support for its policies.
On Friday, DPP executives also met with Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner, during which they agreed to hold trilateral policy negotiations with the LDP.
Japan’s recent political history offers no shortage of relatively new parties that experienced a popularity surge in one election only to slowly fade into the background or merge with other parties in the years that follow.
Whether the DPP ends up becoming a one-hit wonder or proves able to create a stable foundation out of support from the younger generations to survive in the long run remains to be seen.
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