Japanese PM Ishiba's Cabinet support dives below 30%, lowest since taking office
TOKYO, March 23 Kyodo - The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's Cabinet plunged to 27.6 percent, the lowest since he took office in October, following revelations that he handed out gift vouchers to rookie ruling party lawmakers, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
The weekend telephone poll also found that 71.6 percent of respondents opposed Ishiba's distribution of cash-equivalent coupons worth 100,000 yen ($670) each to such lawmakers of his Liberal Democratic Party.
Ishiba was viewed as a politician clean on money matters before the latest scandal came to light, while the LDP, which has been in power for most of the period since 1955, has long been associated with political funds scandals.
Support for the Cabinet stood at 39.6 percent last month. In March, the disapproval rating for Ishiba's Cabinet jumped by 16.0 points to 57.8 percent, casting doubt on his leadership in steering an already faltering government.
The two-day survey was carried out after Ishiba admitted that his office had provided gift certificates, but claimed the practice did not pose legal problems, prompting some LDP members to disclose that previous prime ministers had engaged in similar conduct.
Last week, ruling party sources revealed that the office of former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Ishiba's predecessor, offered gift vouchers worth 100,000 yen each to parliamentary vice ministers during a 2022 meal gathering with the then premier.
Fresh evidence has also emerged pointing to a long-standing controversial practice among Japanese prime ministers, with an LDP lawmaker saying he received cash-equivalent coupons after being elected in 2012.
The general election that year paved the way for Shinzo Abe, who had served a one-year tenure in 2006-2007, to begin a second term that continued through 2020, making him postwar Japan's longest-serving prime minister. He was assassinated during an election campaign speech in 2022.
Many people have been disappointed with LDP's failure to manage political funds responsibly, with the poll showing 78.5 percent felt problems related to "politics and money" will not be resolved under the LDP-led government.
Throughout 2024, the LDP came under intense scrutiny amid allegations that some of its factions, including the largest one formerly led by Abe, failed to report portions of their income from fundraising parties and created slush funds.
Mounting criticism of the ruling party eroded public trust in the LDP and triggered its crushing defeat in the House of Representatives election last October, forcing Ishiba to form a minority government just about a month after becoming prime minister.
By political party, support for the LDP was 27.7 percent, with the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan at 11.1 percent and the Japan Innovation Party, which has recently pursued policy coordination with the ruling bloc, at 5.4 percent.
Backing for the Democratic Party for the People, an opposition group the ruling camp is courting for its minority government, hit 12.9 percent, exceeding that of the CDPJ. Respondents with no affiliation to any particular party accounted for 23.0 percent.
In the lower house election last year, the CDPJ increased its seats to 148 from 98, while the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the Komeito party, dropped sharply to a combined total of 215, losing their majority in the powerful chamber. The JIP gained 38 seats.
The DPP quadrupled its seats by using social media to push what some critics label as populist policies -- such as tax cuts to boost disposable income for households -- but currently holds only 28 in the 465-member lower house.
The survey, meanwhile, showed that 74.8 percent of respondents "do not want to go" to the World Exposition in Osaka, which is scheduled to run for six months from April 13, surpassing the 24.6 percent who said they do.
So far, around 10 countries have decided to withdraw from the expo in Osaka, the commercial hub of western Japan, with concerns growing over ballooning construction costs, apparently fueling a negative public image of the event.
The nationwide survey, conducted for two days through Sunday, called 496 randomly selected households with eligible voters and 3,454 mobile phone numbers.
It yielded responses from 423 household members and 623 mobile phone users. Some areas in Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan, struck by a powerful earthquake in January last year, were excluded.
==Kyodo
