With the Upper House election, Kyodo News conducted a nationwide “exit poll” in which it asked voters the names of the candidates and political parties they cast their ballots for. When asked if they were in favor or opposed to “constitutional amendment under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,” 50.0% of pollees said they were against and only 39.8% said they were in favor. By gender, 34.6% of women and 45.0% of men were in favor and 52.6% of women and 47.3% of men were opposed to changing the supreme law under the current prime minister.

By age group, 53.4% of those in their 50s (both men and women) and over 50% of those in their 40s and 60s were opposed to constitutional revision. The younger age groups were more amenable to revision with 48.0% of those in their 20s, 46.8% of those in their teens, and 45.3% of those in their 30s in favor.

By political party supported, 70.6% of Liberal Democratic Party supporters were in favor while 20.8% were opposed to constitutional revision. Meanwhile, only 48.5% of Komeito supporters were in favor while 39.6% were against. This shows that there is a considerable difference in views on constitutional amendment among ruling party supporters. The age group of LDP supporters most in favor of revising the Constitution was the 20s group at 72.7%, and all age groups from the teens through the 40s had pro-amendment rates of over 70%. Among Komeito supporters, only those in their 40s had a pro-revision rate of over 50%, at 51.2%.

Supporters of Initiatives from Osaka, which is amenable to constitutional revision, were almost equally split with 46.4% in favor and 48.5% opposed. Among supporters of Party for Japanese Kokoro, which is also pro-revision, 51.3% were in favor and 44.0% were opposed.

Of those opposition parties that aim to block constitutional revision under the Abe administration, Democratic Party supporters opposed to amendment vastly outnumbered those in favor, 86.0% to 9.3%. In all age groups from the 40s and up, those opposed to constitutional revision exceeded 80%. The age group most in favor of constitutional revision was the teens at 22.3%. Looking at the other opposition parties, 89.4% of Japanese Communist Party supporters, 84.7% of Social Democratic Party supporters, and 85.7% of People’s Life Party supporters were against constitutional revision.