Abstract
Electoral and administrative reforms in the 1990s enabled prime ministers to exercise stronger leadership than previously possible. Many people believe that the inclusion of single-member districts increased electoral competition so that people can effectively choose prime ministerial candidates based on their policies. However, even though the influence of prime ministers has risen dramatically, little is known about how voters perceive prime ministers and how their perceptions affect political performance evaluations. This paper analyzes people's perceptions of prime ministers using answers to open-ended questions on likes and dislikes from the Japan Election Study IV (JES-IV). By using those answers in combination with other survey data, we demonstrate that people's perceptions influence prime ministerial approval. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the impact of positive perceptions on approval is stronger than that of negative perceptions, presumably because high political awareness is necessary to take negative perceptions into account in evaluating prime ministers.
