The opposition Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito won the same number of seats in Sunday’s Upper House contest —but an analysis of voter trends in both parties in the months leading up to the election indicates a significant shift by those who previously voted for the DPP to Sanseito this time.
Thirteen proved to be the lucky number for both parties. The DPP went into the election contesting four seats and finishing with 17, for a total of 22 Upper House seats, including five seats not up for election. Sanseito, a populist right-wing party, increased its Upper House total from one to 14 seats.
A survey conducted between February and July by the Asahi Shimbun and Asako Miura, a University of Osaka professor who has written about how psychological behavior on social media toward news spreads, showed that while the DPP increased its seat total, it lost support over the six month period as Sanseito gained more backing.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.