One Month into Office, Japan's Suga Cabinet Sees Approval Ratings Drop by Over 10 Percentage Points

In Asahi Poll, Support Drops 12 Percentage Points from 65% to 53%... 'Do Not Support' Responses Increase
Impact of Japan Science Council Personnel Controversy... Positive Evaluation of COVID-19 Response Rises

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga
Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The approval rating of the Yoshihide Suga Cabinet in Japan dropped by more than 10 percentage points just one month after taking office. The controversy over personnel appointments at the Science Council of Japan, which sparked debates over academic freedom infringement, appears to have lowered the approval rating. Meanwhile, the response that the government is handling the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) well has significantly increased.

According to a public opinion poll conducted by Asahi Shimbun on the 17th and 18th targeting 1,458 voters and reported on the 19th, the approval rating of the Suga Cabinet was 53%, down 12 percentage points from the 65% recorded in the survey conducted immediately after taking office last month. During the same period, the percentage of respondents who answered "do not support" increased significantly from 13% to 22%.

Following former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Suga was elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party on the 14th of last month and took office as Japan's 99th prime minister on the 16th of the same month. Having served as Chief Cabinet Secretary in Abe's second cabinet, he emphasized stable cabinet management by inheriting the Abe administration. At the time of his inauguration, his approval rating exceeded 70%, ranking third historically since 1987, following Junichiro Koizumi in 2001 (80%) and Yukio Hatoyama's cabinet in 2009 (75.0%).

The downward trend in Prime Minister Suga's approval rating is confirmed by other poll results as well. According to a Kyodo News poll, the Suga Cabinet's approval rating fell by 5.9 percentage points in one month to 60.5%, and in a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, it dropped from 74% last month to 67% this month. The percentage of respondents who do not support the cabinet also rose by 8 percentage points and 5.7 percentage points, respectively.

The decline in the Suga Cabinet's approval rating appears to be related to the issue where six candidates recommended by the Science Council of Japan, who had records opposing government policies, were not appointed as members of the organization. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Suga appointed only 99 of the 105 members recommended by the Science Council, sparking controversy in Japan over "infringement of academic freedom."

In the Asahi poll, when asked whether Prime Minister Suga's refusal to appoint certain Science Council members was justified, 36% answered "not justified," surpassing the 31% who said "justified." In the Yomiuri survey, 47% of respondents said it was "difficult to accept" the government's response to this issue, exceeding by 15 percentage points those who found it acceptable.

Particularly, criticism followed that Prime Minister Suga's explanation was insufficient. In the Asahi poll, 63% responded that Suga's explanation regarding the refusal to appoint Science Council members was "inadequate," and Kyodo News reported that 72.7% said it was "insufficient," an overwhelming majority.

On the other hand, positive evaluations of the government's COVID-19 response have greatly increased. In the Asahi poll, positive evaluations of the Japanese government's response to COVID-19 reached 49%, the highest among the six previous responses. In the Yomiuri survey, 56% of respondents positively evaluated the government's response.

Meanwhile, regarding the dissolution of the House of Representatives and the general election scheduled for October next year, the Yomiuri survey showed that 59% of voters responded that the election should be held at the expiration of the term or near that time, indicating that negative views toward an early dissolution and general election of the House of Representatives remain strong.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.