Japan's Kishida Cabinet Approval Rating at 21%... "Lowest Since Inauguration"

Fumio Kishida's approval rating as Japan's Prime Minister has dropped to 21%, marking the lowest level since the administration's inception.

On the 10th, Japan's NHK reported that a telephone survey conducted from the 7th to the 9th of this month among 1,192 voters aged 18 and older showed Kishida Cabinet's approval rating fell by 3 percentage points from the previous month to 21%.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
Photo by Yonhap News

This is the lowest since the Kishida administration began in October 2021. It is also the lowest approval rating since the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power in December 2012.

In this survey, the percentage of respondents who do not support the Kishida Cabinet rose by 5 percentage points to 60%.

Due to the fallout from the slush fund scandal and other issues, the Kishida Cabinet's approval rating has remained in the 10-20% range for over half a year. It is considered to be at a level indicating a resignation crisis.

To prevent a recurrence of the slush fund scandal, the LDP proposed an amendment to the Political Funds Control Act, which passed the House of Representatives on the 6th. However, negative evaluations of the amendment stand at 60%, double the positive evaluations (33%).

In response to high inflation, the administration recently took a gamble on tax cuts, but negative reactions remain dominant. Regarding the policy temporarily reducing income tax by 30,000 yen (about 260,000 won) and resident tax by 10,000 yen (about 87,000 won) per taxpayer and dependent family member, totaling 40,000 yen (about 347,000 won), negative evaluations (52%) exceeded positive evaluations (40%).