Support for Japan PM Kishida's Cabinet hits record low 14%: Mainichi poll

TOKYO -- The support rate for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet plunged to a record low of 14% in the latest nationwide opinion poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun on Feb. 17 and 18.

The figure was down 7 percentage points from the previous survey on Jan. 27 and 28. This is the second time the Kishida Cabinet approval rating has dropped below 20%, the first being in December 2023. While a direct comparison cannot be made due to different survey methods, the 14% support rate is the lowest for a Japanese Cabinet since February 2009's 11%, when then-Prime Minister Taro Aso's administration was in power.

Meanwhile, the disapproval rate for the Kishida Cabinet climbed to 82%, up 10 points from the preceding poll. This is the first time the rate has exceeded 80% since July 1947, when the Mainichi first polled respondents on their Cabinet support.

The support rate for Kishida's administration began to decline in June 2023 due to a series of problems surrounding the "My Number" national identification cards. Kishida reshuffled his Cabinet in September, but it didn't help buoy the administration. Since November, a slush fund scandal involving ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) factions has become more serious. The rate recovered to the 20% level in last month's survey, but fell again.

The survey was conducted using a combination of text messages via mobile phones and automated voice questionnaires on landlines. A total of 453 valid responses were received from cell phones and 571 from landlines. For landlines, some areas in Ishikawa Prefecture, which were severely damaged by the Jan. 1 Noto Peninsula earthquake, were excluded from the survey.

(Japanese original by Daisuke Nohara, Poll Office)