Do populists support populism? An examination through an online survey following the 2017 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election

Abstract

Based on an ideational approach, a burgeoning body of literature has directly measured populist attitudes among supporters of populist parties. However, few empirical works have examined whether these attitudes among voters also explain their preferences for politicians whom a political-strategic approach regards as populists. In addition, no research has verified the applicability of individual populist scales to non-Western countries. To overcome these shortcomings, this study assesses populist attitudes among Japanese citizens and explores whether a respondent with these attitudes tends to vote for populist politicians in Japan. We conducted an online survey after the 2017 Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election. Survey results revealed that the supporters of the Tokyoites First Party – a typical populist party in a political-strategic sense – lack the quintessential elements of populism. Further, several subcomponents of populist attitudes led to support for the Japanese Communist Party – a radical leftist party.