Ishiba Cabinet’s Approval Rating Rises Sharply to 39%, for 2nd Biggest Jump on Record

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:00 JST, August 25, 2025

The approval rating for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s Cabinet jumped 17 points to 39% in a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey. That was up from 22% in the July survey, which was conducted immediately after the House of Councillors election in which the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito suffered a crushing defeat.

Disapproval dropped from 67% to 50%.

In the survey, conducted from Friday to Sunday, 42% of respondents said Ishiba should resign after the July election results, compared to 54% in the previous survey. Fifty percent said he did not need to resign, up from 35%.

The jump in approval was the biggest since the survey began being conducted by phone in 2008. Previously, the record was held by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a 15-point rise in the September 2020 survey, conducted after he announced his resignation. Even when including in-person surveys, Ishiba’s 17-point jump is still in second place, only behind a 20-point rise marked in the September 2002 survey, conducted after former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited North Korea.

The Ishiba Cabinet’s approval rating plummeted in the July survey to its lowest level since the Cabinet was formed, but the tariff agreement reached with the United States and the announcement of a policy to boost rice production seem to have been well received.

As for tariff negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, 42% approved of how the negotiations have gone, while 48% disapproved, narrowing the gap from June, when 29% approved and 56% disapproved. Meanwhile, 86% supported Ishiba’s plan to revise rice production policy and increase harvests.

Ishiba intends to announce his personal view on World War II on the 80th anniversary of the war’s end, and this was approved of by 58% of respondents and disapproved of by 27%.

As for the LDP possibly holding an early presidential race after its loss in the upper house election, 52% were in favor and 35% were opposed.

The LDP was supported by 23% of respondents. That was up 4 points from 19%, which was the lowest point for the party since it returned to power in 2012. The recovery was modest compared to the Cabinet’s approval rating.

Support for Sanseito remained steady at 12%, while the Democratic Party for the People slid from 11% to 9%, and the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan fell from 8% to 7%. The percentage of undecided voters grew from 29% to 32%.

The July election left the LDP and Komeito ruling bloc as a minority in both houses of the Diet. When asked which opposition party — the CDPJ, the DPFP or the Japan Innovation Party — they would most like to see join the LDP-Komeito coalition to give it a majority, 33% of respondents picked the DPFP, 23% chose the JIP and 19% picked the CDPJ. Twenty-five percent did not choose any of the three parties.

The survey was conducted by calling landline and mobile phone numbers selected via random digit dialing and targeted voters age 18 and older. For landlines, 406 people answered at 733 households that were called and where a voter was confirmed to reside. For mobile numbers, 585 people responded among the 1,774 who were called. A total of 991 people answered.