Survey Finds 26％ of Voters Approve of the Kishida Cabinet; Number has Remained Between 20 and 30％ for Over Six Months

The Yomiuri Shimbun

1:00 JST, May 21, 2024

The approval rating of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet was 26% in the Yomiuri Shimbun’s latest monthly poll, conducted between Friday and Sunday. It has now remained between 20 and 30% for seven months in a row.

The disapproval rating was 63%, a decrease from the April survey, when it sat at 66%.

79% of respondents said they did not have a good opinion of the Liberal Democratic Party’s response to the revision of the Political Funds Control Law, far above the 14% who said they did.

The LDP submitted its proposal for revising the Political Funds Control Law alone after failing to reach a consensus with its coalition partner Komeito on where to set the threshold amount for the mandatory disclosure of the names of fundraising party ticket buyers and the disclosure of how policy activity funds are handled.

As for the future handling of policy activity funds, 44% of the respondents said they should “disclose the details of how they are used,” 29% said they should “disclose the broad strokes of how they are used,” 19% said “prohibit the funds,” and 4% said “leave them as they are.”

70% of the respondents “do not think” that revising this law will solve the ongoing series of “politics and money” problems, while 22% of the respondents think it will.

In order to secure financial resources for measures to combat the declining birthrate, the government plans to establish a system to collect “child-rearing support payments” by increasing public medical insurance premiums. 37% of respondents were in favor of this plan, while 55% were opposed.

The LDP’s approval rating rose to 27%, up from 24% on the previous survey. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan gained two percentage points from the previous survey, bringing it to 7%. Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) remained at 4%. The proportion of voters with no party affiliation dropped from 51% to 46%.

When asked whether they would like to see “continuation of the LDP-led government” or “replacement by a government led by the parties currently in opposition” after the next lower house election, respondents were split, with 42% picking each of the two options. As for who respondents intended to vote for in the proportional representation portion of the next lower house election, the LDP had the highest level of support, at 27%, one point higher than the 26% they received last time. In second place was the CDPJ, who gained five points, going from 10% to 15%. Third was Nippon Ishin, whose score of 10% was the same as it received in April.

Among unaffiliated voters, 13% were for the CDPJ, followed by 10% each for the LDP and Nippon Ishin, marking the first time in the seven surveys which have been conducted since last May that the LDP has fallen from the top spot. When limited to those who want a change of government, the CDPJ had 29%, and Nippon Ishin and Reiwa Shinsengumi 11% each.

Regarding the question of when the House of Representatives should be dissolved and a general election should be held, 26% said “by the end of the current Diet session in June,” followed by 23% each for “within this year” and “no need to hold an election until the end of the Diet term next October.”

The poll was conducted on voters age 18 or older by calling telephone numbers and cell phone numbers randomly chosen by computer. A total of 1,033 responses were received. Of the telephone calls to 673 households which were found to contain at least one voter, 398 calls received responses to the survey. Of the 1,659 people who answered cell phone calls, 635 people responded. The response rate was 59% for telephones and 38% for cell phones.