DPFP Ranked as No. 1 Opposition Party; Efforts to Change ‘￥1.03 Million Barrier’ Credited for Popular Support

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:13 JST, December 17, 2024

In a nationwide opinion poll conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun from Friday to Sunday, the Democratic Party for the People’s (DPFP) support rate was 12%, making it the highest-rated opposition party for the first time. Its support was second only to that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), whose approval rate was 24%.

The DPFP’s efforts to realize policies such as reviewing the “¥1.03 million barrier,” the annual income threshold above which income tax is levied, seem to have been highly regarded, pushing other opposition parties, such as the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), into the background.

Motohisa Furukawa, acting representative of the DPFP, told reporters in the Diet on Monday that the party’s approval rating was the highest among the opposition parties because “there is firm public understanding for [the DPFP’s] policy-oriented political discussions.”

Support for the party, which had been hovering around 1-2% since the current form of the DPFP was established in 2020, surged after the October 2024 House of Representatives election, when the party called for “increase in after-tax income.” It rose to 7% in a survey conducted in late October, immediately after the lower house election, and to 10% in November.

The party has increased its presence in policy discussions with the minority ruling bloc of the LDP and Komeito, extracting concessions from the ruling parties on such issues as the review of the “¥1.03 million barrier” and the abolition of the provisional portion of gasoline taxes.

Some within the party were concerned that the party would become less able to convey its message after its leader Yuichiro Tamaki was suspended as the party representative for three months, following a report that the married man had an affair with a female acquaintance. However, Tamaki has continued to make appearances on TV and post comments on social media, and the impact of the scandal has been limited at this point.

Other opposition parties are struggling to make their presence felt by the public.

The CDPJ won an amendment to the fiscal 2024 supplementary budget to increase funding for the restoration and reconstruction of communities on the Noto Peninsula by ¥100 billion, and they have been increasingly aggressive toward the LDP on political reforms, calling for a ban on corporate and group donations. However, their approval rating has dropped 3 points from the previous round, to 8%. As public attention has been focused on the dialogue between the ruling bloc and DPFP, a CDPJ executive said, “The DPFP has an overwhelming advantage in terms of appeal.”