Japanese Kishida Cabinet Approval Rating 'Falls Again'... 48.3% Do Not Support

5.2% Point Drop in One Month

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] It has been revealed that the approval rating of the Kishida Fumio (岸田文雄) Cabinet has not escaped its downward trend.

According to Kyodo News on the 9th, a public opinion poll conducted nationwide among Japanese voters from the 8th to 9th showed that the approval rating for the Kishida Cabinet was 35.0%, down 5.2 percentage points from last month. On the other hand, the percentage of respondents who do not support the Kishida Cabinet rose 1.8 percentage points from the previous month to 48.3%. In the Kyodo News survey, the approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet was 54.1% in August but dropped by nearly 20 percentage points over two months.

Other media outlets’ surveys also show that the recent approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet continues to decline. The approval ratings announced earlier this month by Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun were 45% and 40%, respectively, both the lowest since the cabinet’s launch on October 4 last year. In a survey by Mainichi Shimbun last month, the approval rating was 29%.

Key reasons for the decline in the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating include allegations of collusion between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church, hereafter Family Federation), controversies surrounding the state funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, and rising prices.