Taiwanese voter surveys on restrictions of food imports from five prefectures near fukushima, japan: an empirical analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Changes in taiwan’s food import regulations after the fukushima nuclear accident

March 11 2011:	The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Accident
March 25 2011:	Import of food products from five prefectures suspended
March 2015:	Origin misrepresentation on processed food from five Japanese prefectures uncovered
May 2015:	All exported food products must be accompanied by a certificate of origin; fishery products, tea, infant food, etc. must be accompanied by a radioactive material inspection report
January 16 2016:	Tsai Ing-Wen elected in presidential election
November 24 2018:	Referendum decides to continue import restrictions

Table 2. Results of referendum proposal 9 on continuing import restrictions, 2018

Number of registered voters	Number of valid votes					Number of invalid votes	Number of voters	%turnout rate	%valid agreement/the number of voting rights
	Agreement		Disagreement		Total	D	E = C + D	F = E/B
B	C1 votes	%C1/C	C2 votes	%C2/C	C = C1+ C2				G = C1/B
19,757,067	7,791,856	77.74	2,231,425	22.26	10,023,281	756,041	10,779,322	54.56	39.44

Source: Central Election Commission (2018), Taiwan

Table 3. Voting action and opinions on japanese imported foods by sex

	Voting action			Opinion
	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female
Number of surveys	360	180	180	360	180	180
Number weighted by voters	360	176.9	183.1	360	176.9	183.1
Agree with import restrictions	60.9	56.0	65.6	71.6	64.7	78.3
(s.e.)	(2.6)	(3.8)	(3.5)	(2.4)	(3.6)	(3.0)
Disagree with import restrictions	9.7	14.8	4.9	19.5	27.9	11.4
(s.e.)	(1.6)	(2.7)	(1.6)	(2.1)	(3.4)	(2.4)
Abstentions/blank votes	11.3	12.4	10.3	-	-	-
(s.e.)	(1.6)	(2.4)	(2.2)
No-vote	12.3	11.9	12.6	-	-	-
(s.e.)	(1.7)	(2.4)	(2.5)
Forgot/no opinion	4.3	3.9	4.6	5.7	4.9	6.5
(s.e.)	(1.0)	(1.4)	(1.5)	(1.2)	(1.6)	(1.8)
Refusal to answer	1.5	1.0	2.0	3.1	2.5	3.8
(s.e.)	(0.6)	(0.7)	(1.0)	(0.9)	(1.1)	(1.3)
Rate of agreement	86.2	79.1	93.1	78.6	69.8	87.3
(s.e.)	(2.2)	(3.7)	(2.2)	(2.3)	(3.6)	(2.6)
Voter turnout rate	74.9	74.5	75.4	-	-	-
(s.e.)	(2.4)	(3.3)	(3.3)

Note: Real population composition is weighted by number of voters in each sex/age cohort

Table 4. Relationship between “voting action” and “opinion” on the import restriction

		Opinion
		Agree	Disagree	No opinion	Refusal to answer	Total	Rate of agreement
Voting action	Agree	198.8	15.5	3.1	1.7	219.2	92.7
	Disagree	1.0	34.0	0.0	0.0	35.0	2.9
	Abstentions/ blank votes	18.7	7.9	10.3	3.9	40.8	70.2
	No-vote	31.0	6.8	3.2	3.3	44.2	82.0
	Forgot/no opinion	7.4	4.1	4.0	0.0	15.5	64.1
	Refusal to answer	0.9	1.9	0.0	2.5	5.3	33.3
	Total	257.9	70.3	20.6	11.3	360.0	78.6
	Rate of agreement	99.5	31.4	100.0	100.0	86.2
	Voter turnout rate	80.1	77.1	18.7	19.1	74.9

Table 5. Voting action and opinions on japanese imported foods by supporting parties

			Voting action		Opinion
	number	weighted	rate of agreement	voter turnout rate	rate of agreement
DPP supporters	59	57.4	76.2	65.8	67.3
(s.e.)			(7.2)	(6.4)	(6.6)
KMT supporters	107	110.1	95.7	88.0	88.5
(s.e.)			(2.1)	(3.1)	(3.1)
Support no party	166	163.3	82.3	68.4	76.0
(s.e.)			(3.9)	(3.9)	(3.7)
(Difference)
DPP – no party			−6.1	−2.7	−8.7
(s.e.)			(8.2)	(7.5)	(7.5)
KMT – no party			13.4	19.6	12.5
(s.e.)			(4.4)	(5.0)	(4.8)
DPP – KMT			−19.5	−22.3	−21.2
(s.e.)			(7.5)	(7.1)	(7.3)

Note: Weighted population composition is weighted by number of voters of each sex/age cohort.

Table 6. Survey results by attribute

					Voting action		Opinion
			number	weighted	rate of agreement	voter turnout rate	rate of agreement
Total			360	360	86.2	74.9	78.6
Sex and age cohorts	20–29	male	30	30.8	73.7	67.9	67.9
		female	30	28.5	78.3	82.1	65.4
	30–39	male	30	34.4	66.7	85.7	62.1
		female	30	34.4	91.7	85.7	80.0
	40–49	male	30	34.2	79.2	82.8	69.0
		female	30	35.3	100.0	79.3	100.0
	50–59	male	30	33.6	96.0	83.3	82.1
		female	30	34.7	100.0	76.7	100.0
	60–69	male	30	26.2	81.2	55.2	69.2
		female	30	28.4	89.5	73.1	80.8
	70-	male	30	17.7	73.3	57.7	68.0
		female	30	21.9	100.0	42.3	95.2
Education	Primary school		54	41.8	85.8	34.9	76.7
	Junior High School		37	34.7	88.6	68.0	88.6
	Senior High School		84	88.4	93.1	80.6	82.1
	Vocational school		60	63.6	89.2	81.4	83.9
	University		94	98.4	83.9	79.4	73.9
	Graduate School or Higher		27	29.6	67.9	92.6	64.8
Child	Children under the age of 18 living together		128	133.5	82.0	78.2	77.5
	None of above		232	226.5	89.0	72.9	79.2
	Children under the age of 6 living together		61	63.2	79.5	80.4	79.9
	None of above		299	296.8	87.9	73.7	78.3
Japanese familiarity	Purchased or consumed food produced from Japan in the last six months		74	79.6	78.8	82.6	65.8
	None of above		276	270.5	89.1	71.7	82.8

Note: Weighted population composition is weighted by number of voters of each sex/age cohort.

Table 7. The effects of supporting parties on the probabilities of agreeing with the import restriction

	Voting action				Opinion
	rate of agreement		voter turnout		rate of agreement
			rate
(No control)
DPP – no party	−6.1		−3.2		−8.7
(s.e.)	(8.2)		(7.5)		(7.5)
KMT – no party	13.4	***	19.1	***	12.5	**
(s.e.)	(4.4)		(4.9)		(4.8)
(2 sex and 6 age categories, education and having children)
DPP – no party	−6.1		−2.7		−10.3
(s.e.)	(8.9)		(7.7)		(7.6)
KMT – no party	11.3	**	14.9	***	10.0	**
(s.e.)	(4.7)		(5.1)		(5.1)
(12 sex-age combinations, education and having children)
DPP – no party	−5.4		−3.9		−10.5
(s.e.)	(8.9)		(7.8)		(7.7)
KMT – no party	10.6	**	15.0	***	10.4	**
(s.e.)	(4.7)		(5.1)		(5.1)
Sample	225		308		297

Note: The results on control variables are omitted for space.