Kishida Cabinet Gets Post-Election Approval Boost

The latest batch of opinion polls circulated by Japanese media outlets suggest that the approval of Fumio Kishida's Cabinet leapt higher after the ruling coalition secured a resounding victory in the Upper House election held last weekend.

• The Cabinet's approval rating rose to 63.2% in a Kyodo News poll, up 6.3 percentage points from the previous survey taken in June. In a poll taken by Yomiuri, 65% of respondets said they approved of the Cabinet, up 8 percentage point from the June survey. Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party remains by far the most popular political party.
• In the Yomiuri poll, a combined 86% of respondents said that they believed the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe affected the outcome of the election slightly (54%) or greatly (32%). But the phrasing of the question and extensive media coverage of the incident may have encouraged people to give affirmative answers. The Kyodo survey showed that just 15.1% of people said their voting intentions were influenced by the incident.
• In addition, the public showed little interest in facilitating the process of amending Japan's pacifist constitution. 58.4% of respondents in the Kyodo poll said there is no need to hurry, with 37.5% saying the contrary. In the Yomiuri survey, constitutional amendments were relatively far on the list of issues voters think the Cabinet should prioritise, with economy and employment, inflation and national security topping the ranking.
• Post-election opinion polling highlights the strength of the mandate handed to the ruling coalition, with Prime Minister Kishida looking at three "golden years" of peace until the next general election. Strong popular support for his Cabinet gives him more scope to proceed to pursuing his policy agenda, although the experience of his foreign peers shows that the tide of public sentiment may eventually turn if current economic headwinds persist.