Two-party System and Political Spectrum in Japan: Transformation of Voter-Party Relationship

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24330045
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Politics
• Research Institution: Chuo University
• Principal Investigator: REED Steven R. 中央大学, 総合政策学部, 教授 (10256018)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HINO Airo 早稲田大学, 政治経済学術院, 教授 (30457816) ; ARAI Kiichiro 首都大学, 東京社会科学研究科, 准教授 (80548157)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 政治過程論 / 選挙研究 / 投票行動論 / 日本政治論 / 政党論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The main purposes of this research project are 1) to reveal the policy preference of Japanese voters and candidates, and 2) to create a new political spectrum among voters. To achieve our goals, we conducted focus group interviews, web-based surveys, and web-based experiments in 2012 general election and 2013 House of Councilors election. The analysis provides the following results. Firstly, Today’s Japanese voters are classified into 5 groups. Voters who belong the largest group (about 27% of Japanese voters) prefer the restart of nuclear power stations, Japan’s participation in TPP, and expanding public works. Secondly, Ideologies such as “Liberals-Conservatives” or “Big government-Small government” have relatively few effect on the classification of voters.

Free Research Field

選挙研究　比較政治学　日本政治論