Japanese Prime Minister Kishida's Approval Rating Plummets to Regime Resignation Level

Mainichi, Asahi Polls Show 14-25%
Decline Amid Secret Funds Scandal and Unification Church Allegations
Cabinet No-Confidence Rate at 84%, First Time Exceeding 80%

Fumio Kishida's approval rating for the Japanese Cabinet has recently recorded in the 10-20% range in consecutive opinion polls. This is a critically low approval rating, effectively at the level of a regime resignation crisis.

According to a recent opinion poll conducted and released by Mainichi Shimbun on the 19th, the approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet dropped 7 percentage points from last month’s 21% to 14%. This is the lowest level since the Aso Taro Cabinet recorded an 11% approval rating in February 2009 in the Mainichi survey. Additionally, 82% responded that they do not support the Kishida Cabinet. This is the first time since the survey began that the disapproval rate of the Cabinet has exceeded 80%.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Low approval ratings are also confirmed in opinion polls by other media outlets. In Asahi Shimbun’s poll, the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating was 21%, while in the conservative-leaning Yomiuri Shimbun’s poll, it was 24%. Additionally, Jiji Press recorded 16.9%, Kyodo News 24.5%, and NHK 25% respectively.

The causes of this decline in approval ratings are attributed to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) faction’s slush fund scandal that has continued since last year, and suspicions regarding the relationship between the LDP and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church, hereafter Family Federation). After controversy arose over the creation of slush funds from money collected at political fund “parties” within LDP factions, Prime Minister Kishida declared the dissolution of the Kishida faction he led and proposed party-level reform measures, but these efforts were insufficient to turn public opinion.

Earlier, the LDP announced that after conducting a slush fund investigation targeting 384 people, including 374 incumbent Diet members and 10 local branch chiefs, 85 current and former lawmakers had inadequately reported political funds in their financial reports from 2018 to 2022, with related amounts reaching 5.7949 billion yen (approximately 5.15 billion KRW). However, the specific details regarding the creation and use of the slush funds were not clearly disclosed.

Furthermore, this month it was revealed one after another that the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, who is responsible for religious policy, and the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the government spokesperson, had past contacts with Family Federation officials, drawing public criticism.

With the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating at a resignation crisis level, former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba, who made strong remarks against the LDP slush fund scandal and Prime Minister Kishida, is being mentioned as a candidate for the next prime minister. According to Mainichi’s survey on suitable candidates for the next prime minister, former Secretary-General Ishiba ranked highest with 25%. In the Yomiuri poll, Ishiba also took first place with 21%.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kishida’s term as LDP president ends this September. In Japan’s parliamentary system, the leader of the majority party becomes the next prime minister.

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