Kishida's disapproval rate reaches 50%

Much of the public also appears unenthusiastic about the government's plan to boost child care spending to reverse the declining birthrate, with a total of 69.2 percent saying they have either "no expectations" or "do not expect much" from the measure.

Those plan just like other J govt plans just sugar coating without real effect.

So 50% of people surveyed do not disapprove?

Shocking.

So 50% of people surveyed do not disapprove?

Wow, such insight.

Only 50% disapprove?

Still many ignorant of the ineptitude

@Zoroto

The sign of totalitarianism is when they can just say "what are you going to do about it?"

In a totalitarian system, the poll would have shown 99.9% approval. Japan may be a one party system, but Kyodo News can still publish an honest poll showing Kishida's weakness.

There's that Camp David bounce we were looking for...

I'm sure he has a few tricks up his sleeve, like some gift to the old people or moving the cabinet around, which will see him bounce back.

Wow? Really? Only 50% disapprove? I wonder just exactly who they asked!

Here is one reason why Kishida is an absolute clown: The press will ask him a question and he can't simply respond from the heart, he has to read a prepared answer without even looking up. The man in an empty suit.

obladiToday  07:25 am JST

@Zoroto

The sign of totalitarianism is when they can just say "what are you going to do about it?"

In a totalitarian system, the poll would have shown 99.9% approval.

Right, the Japanese system is just archaic, broken-down and inefficient, and run by a corrupt wannabe-peerage, personified by bland non-entities like Kishida or 3rd generation spivs like Abe, for the sole purpose of keeping themselves on top.

Not surprising at all.

Although this surely isn't the reason his disapproval rating is so high, I thought it was ridiculous how he waited an entire year and a half to fully reopen the country because he wanted to dip his feet in the water with Omicron. Imagine how much tourism could have helped the Japanese economy between late 2021 and fall 2022.

Though, that is emblematic of typical problems with Japanese leadership - everything is always about negligible incremental changes, gauging responses, and generally nothing of real value or substance.

Aside from military spending increases, what has Kishida actually done? He is another lame duck.

Has anyone noticed he seems to travel and do more "international diplomacy" aka Taxpayer trips globetrotting across the globe. I feel like every other week there is a post of him in another country. Seems a bit excessive. How many times do you need to meet your American overlords in different settings G7, UN, NATO, Quad, 3 way Summit with South Korea etc.

Right, the Japanese system is just archaic, broken-down and inefficient, and run by a corrupt

But Trump and Johnson are not Japanese. Neither is Biden. And you and your friends live in Japan. You voted with your feet and you voted for the LDP. LOL

Status quo PM while millions struggle with stagflation. Look at the yen!

Has anyone noticed he seems to travel and do more "international diplomacy"

When you have Russia, North Korea and China- All with Nukes- on your boarder, you better go talk with your friends

Japan’s economy has been the same for the last three decades. The U.S. meanwhile has grown 4 times during the same period. Kishida likes to go overseas and project this global leader image.

I am pretty sure getting overrun by tourists again is actually hurting his numbers.

You are correct, since the vast majority of the Japanese people wanted the borders to remain close. And Kishida didnt have the ba### to stand up to the G7.

 The U.S. meanwhile has grown 4 times

And is a total basketcase. Just go take a look at San Francisco.

If you watch Japanese media, it is controlled by LDP. Nippon Kaigi, USA, and unification church. So who should care about his rating?

I look at "approval" polls like I do house value when one purchases a property. You can say "my property doubled in value, has been halved in value, is worth X now" about the present situation, but in reality this situation means nothing UNLESS you actually can sell said property for that stated value. If not, who's to say today's metric is real, will stay static, or not change tomorrow for better or worse?

So half of these 1,049 Japanese supposedly express "disapproval" of Kishida...and? In what way does this effect his ability to lead and legislate (it doesn't). If there were an election tomorrow? Well, that would be different, right, since this supposed "disapproval" would have a chance to be proven in real time.

But as one can see with Biden, Macron, Shultz, Sunak - ALL having underwater approval ratings...yet there they are, still doing their things. And we've seen time and again that seemingly "unpopular" politicians have been able to not only survive in Japan and elsewhere, but actually sometimes even still win elections. Not a good situation, and not a good metric for validating the veracity of such polls, but it is what it is. People's general distrust of all forms of authority is rightfully growing worldwide for plenty of reasons...

Away all BoatsToday  09:38 am JST

But Trump and Johnson are not Japanese. Neither is Biden.

That is what is known as "whataboutism." The Soviets did it a lot whenever anyone in the west criticised what they were getting up to. For instance, Stalin might have all his generals shot and bring up the Night of the Long Knives if anyone made an issue out of it.

Why don't you just have the honesty to face up to issues in Japan instead of going off-topic about other countries?

And you and your friends live in Japan. You voted with your feet and you voted for the LDP.

Did I? What makes you think that?

LOL

Oh, does that mean you were making some kind of joke?

And that number will rise..

Kishi, you're pathetic..

I remember when I visited the US last year, I saw stickers at gas pumps (petrol station) with Biden pointing at the gas price saying "I did that". Now that gas prices are getting out of control here as well, maybe we'll start seeing stickers of Kishida at gas stations, supermarkets, and electricity bills that say "ore ga yatta". His approval rating surely will decline even further.

In a totalitarian system, the poll would have shown 99.9% approval. Japan may be a one party system, but Kyodo News can still publish an honest poll showing Kishida's weakness.

obladi

Press freedom has always been an issue in Japan. It ranks 68th on the global press freedom rankings which places it below Liberia, Niger and Kosovo.

There are 2 main issues with press freedom in Japan. The first is legal. Media in Japan is not fully independent from the government. The ministry of internal affairs and communications can revoke or suspend broadcasting licenses on account of "fairness". (As defined by the government.) See the case of Sanae Takaichi from a few years back which highlighted the issue and caused Japan's press freedoms rank to slide even further under the Abe regime.

https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/14856735

The second is cultural. Japan has a culture of "press clubs" (Kisha Kurabu) which makes in easy for the government and Japanese companies to shut off media access should they face any criticism.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/why-japan-ranks-poorly-in-press-freedom/a-65549778

These 2 main factors create an oppressive atmosphere in which journalists and media outlets are under constant threat of being cut off or shut down if they don't tow the line or start to dig a little too deep. As such the media in

Japan cannot function independently and freely of government interest and influence. 

Much like Japan's one party "democratic" system, press freedom in Japan is largely a facade. Not much more than lip service to the concepts of genuine freedom, democracy and pluralism.

Hito BitoToday  10:07 am JST

And we've seen time and again that seemingly "unpopular" politicians have been able to not only survive in Japan and elsewhere, but actually sometimes even still win elections.

In Japan they win because their elderly supporters in the countryside are heavily over-represented due to urban-rural vote-value disparities and hardly anyone else bothers to turn up to vote, and because there isn't a single well-established opposition party with viable policies, credible leadership and enough funding for candidates in every district - especially not in the countryside. It makes LDP victories pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Smoke and mirrors

The core issues are not inflation nor the botched ID. These are issues but not what Japanese voters should be worrying about

The real problems are:GDP, productivity and the falling birthrate.

Japan is a country where any data on the above show a negative downtrend thus growth is impossible

When somebody gets together and begins to remedy the above problems (not feckless inept politicians) then Japan will see an uptick

The world we live in is the one created by those we elect and re-elect, and re-elect and on and on. Take California as the best example. One of the best places in America reduced to a dumpster fire by one party.

The real problems are:GDP, productivity and the falling birthrate.

Japan is a country where any data on the above show a negative downtrend thus growth is impossible

GDP

Japan GDP grew 6%

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/15/japan-q2-gdp.html

Productivity

Major Japan firms expect FY2023 net profit to rise 4% to record high

Falling birth rate:

Yup birth rate is falling, but so is ever other advance economy.

 Fertility crisis? France’s birth rate hits near 30-year low

https://www.connexionfrance.com/article/French-news/Health/Fertility-crisis-France-s-birth-rate-hits-near-30-year-low

Kishida's disapproval rate reaches 50%............Uumm, so does this actually mean some thing? If the figures were 20%...40%....120% or what ever, nothing will change.

Away all BoatsToday 11:53 am JST

Why don't you just have the honesty to face up to issues in Japan instead of going off-topic about other countries?

Japan has issues no doubt about it. The west wishes they had our problems. Just go take a look how the west handled Covid. Who had the most the most deaths? It was not Japan.

Here in the US we would rather be dead than still dealing with the masked and closures. Honestly no one gives a darn about Covid anymore except to complain about what it did to the young people.

There's not so much to discuss here, because the response rate is very low, suggesting a statistically high error tolerance of about 5%. In addition I have doubts that topics like a few Mynumber card errors or that Tritium water release are the real life problems burning on top of everyone's priority list. And finally there's not even a visible opposition or any alternative within sight. That poll has imo almost no statistical or political meaning.

Always take these poll figures with a grain of salt. Your average Jo Tanaka is so NOT into politics or trying to understand the inner workings and mechanisms of the nation that his opinion of who he 'approves' of or not is next to meaningless. Then you have a political class that makes so little effort to make themselves, their vision, and their policies understood ( watch their scripted generic everything for reference ) that the general population just stays tuned out and aloof. You see it played out on a miniature version in the workplace too, where a sense of shared direction and agency is next to zero. The lost decades have wreaked havoc on the soul of a nation and run-of-the-mill leaders just keep the whole parody in a continuum.

The flip side of it is you don't have to sit through hours of political bickering at the dinner table with families like you often do overseas. Not sure which is worse, an over-politicized population or an under-one!!

It really doesn't matter.

Either Kishida will be replaced from within by means of backroom deals by the LDP old boys, or there will be an election and the LDP will win, despite a 40-year record of failure after failure.

Until the opposition parties pull their fingers out and put forward a credible unified set of policies, Japan is a de facto one-party state.

Who cares what they say.they still vote the same party in. I’m prepared to bet a months salary they will A) change the leader then go to the polls and be in power or B) go to the polls and still be in power. Either way it’s still the same guys.

Derek GrebeToday  12:56 pm JST

Until the opposition parties pull their fingers out and put forward a credible unified set of policies, Japan is a de facto one-party state.

It's not that simple. It's pay to play in Japanese politics, and LDP incumbents or candidates are sitting on heaps of cash stockpiled by parents and grandparents. Don't ask where it all came from.

After the DPJ fragmented about ten years ago no single opposition party has been able to match the resources of the LDP. It has to be one party that does it, no one is going to trust another mish-mash of radicals, liberals, progressives, centrists and conservative LDP-wannabes.

75.3 percent wanted the government to keep extending subsidies 

Japan…. Wake up. Subsidies are paid for by us all.

Abe234Today  01:10 pm JST

Who cares what they say.they still vote the same party in.

In a lot of the over-represented countryside areas that are so useful to the LDP there literally isn't an alternative. On the ballot there's just the LDP candidate, maybe someone else from a minor opposition party that everyone knows will never achieve anything or be in power, and a couple of independents who are throwing away their election deposits (about ¥6 million). It's not like the US where you can always vote Republican if you don't like the local Democrat Congressman, and vice versa.

Bless Kishida! Best PM ever!

Kishida should get a tip from Yoon on how to survive with a 62% disapproval like he's doing.

@Roy Sophveason

His opponents are even less popular.

Actually Yoon's conditions are much worse, the opposition Democratic party currently holds the supermajority in the parliament and are leading Yoon's party by 15~20% in "Which party would you vote for in next general election" polls.

The numbers are so bad Yoon's party leaders and Yoon's mentors are talking a "blood bath" and "total wipeout" for Yoon's party in the next election.