Xinhua News Agency, Tokyo, August 31st(International Observation) Cabinet Support Rate Refreshes Low Kishida Regime Unpopular
Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Qiaomei
In recent months, the public support for the cabinet led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has continued to decline. According to the results of polls released by many Japanese media recently, the support rate of the Kishida cabinet in August maintained or refreshed the lowest level since the establishment of the cabinet. Analysts believe that this phenomenon shows that the Kishida cabinet is unpopular, and the operation of the regime will be difficult in the future.
On August 10, 2022, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Tokyo, Japan. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Pool photo, photo by Rodrigo Reyes Marin)
Entering “dangerous waters”
Japan’s “Mainichi Shimbun” recently released the results of a national public opinion survey in August, showing that the support rate of Kishida’s cabinet dropped by two percentage points compared with July to 26%, and it has been in the “dangerous waters” below 30% for two consecutive months. The rate rose to 68%, an increase of 3 percentage points from the previous month.
According to the “Aoki Law” proposed by Japanese politician Mitsuo Aoki, when the sum of the support rate of the cabinet and the party support rate of the largest party in the ruling coalition falls below 50 percentage points, the regime will have difficulty in operating and may even collapse. According to the “Mainichi Shimbun” poll in August, the combined support rate of the Kishida cabinet and the Liberal Democratic Party is 51 percentage points, which is only one step away from falling below 50 percentage points.
According to the results of the poll released by the “Yomiuri Shimbun” on August 28, the support rate of the Kishida cabinet in August remained at 35%, which was the same as the lowest level since the establishment of the cabinet last month. The August polls by Jiji, Kyodo and Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK) all showed that the support rate of the Kishida cabinet was at the lowest level in history, of which Jiji was 26.6%, and the other two were both 33%.
Multiple crises intertwined
Public opinion believes that there are multiple reasons for the low support rate of the Kishida cabinet.
First of all, the Kishida cabinet’s ineffective measures to deal with inflation have aroused strong public dissatisfaction. According to data released by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan’s core consumer price index after excluding fresh food rose by 3.1% year-on-year in July, exceeding 3% for 11 consecutive months. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, after deducting the price increase factor, Japan’s real wage income in June fell by 1.6% year-on-year, marking the 15th consecutive month of year-on-year decline. Skyrocketing food and energy prices have made life miserable for the people. Japan’s ruling party also believes that “the family economy is worse than imagined, and if additional countermeasures are not taken, more support will be lost.”
Secondly, frequent problems with the “Individual Number Card” system have made the public question the Kishida cabinet’s ability to govern. In order to promote the digitization of government services, the Japanese government decided to implement the “Individual Number Card” system. In addition to being used as a document for verification and authentication, the Individual Number Card can also be bound to a public fund collection account and a health insurance card. However, in the process of implementing this system, the Japanese government has exposed major problems such as binding errors one after another, causing public concerns about privacy leakage. As of August 8, there were more than 8,400 cases of health insurance certificates, more than 2,800 cases of handbooks for the disabled, and more than 100 cases of binding errors in pension information.
Third, Kishida’s cabinet has continued to suffer scandals, and Kishida’s ability to employ people has been widely criticized. From late October to December last year, four ministers resigned due to scandals such as ties to the Unification Church and involvement in political funding issues. This became an important reason for the sharp drop in support for the Kishida cabinet at that time. In May of this year, Japan held the Group of Seven summit, and the support rate of the Kishida cabinet once rebounded. But soon, Kishida’s eldest son, who was the secretary to the prime minister, was exposed to the scandal of having a party at the prime minister’s official residence. Coupled with the continuous exposure of the “individual number card” system and other reasons, the support rate of the Kishida cabinet plunged and entered a downward trajectory. Recently, Kishida’s confidant and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara Seiji exposed his private life and alleged interference in the judiciary, and the foreign affairs official and Liberal Democratic Party member Akimoto Masatoshi exposed a bribery scandal, which led to renewed calls for accountability for Kishida’s appointment.
On August 24, Japanese people held signs such as “Don’t throw polluted water into the sea” and gathered in front of the Tokyo Electric Power Company headquarters to protest against the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Company ignoring public opinion and launching nuclear polluted water into the sea.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Guang
In addition, the Kishida cabinet’s insistence on discharging the nuclear-contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea has caused huge controversy in Japan, which is also an important factor in its decline in support. Emeritus professor at Yamaguchi University, Japan, believes that Kishida cabinet’s hasty approach in disregarding the objections of Japanese fishers and the concerns of China and other neighboring countries will only lead to doubts and loss of trust. According to a poll released by Kyodo News not long ago, 81.9% of the respondents believed that the government’s explanation for the discharge of nuclear contaminated water into the sea was “insufficient” and 81.9% believed that the discharge of sewage into the sea would bring a “great” or “to a certain extent” image to Japan. The proportion of respondents who were impaired was as high as 88.1%.
Reorganization is hard to change the decline
According to Japanese media forecasts, Kishida may carry out a cabinet reshuffle in mid-September. Former senior official of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sonzaki Kyo believes that Kishida intends to increase the support rate through cabinet reshuffle, but in the long run, there are no positive factors to increase the support rate.
In Huanhou’s view, the “little trick” of cabinet reshuffle cannot bring the Kishida regime back to life, and the Kishida regime “feels more and more of entering dangerous waters.” He said that the “listening ability” promised by the Kishida regime to the public at the beginning of its coming to power was false, and its diplomatic posture of relying on the United States to be tough on China rather than open its mind to solve problems with China was also putting the cart before the horse. If the domestic and foreign affairs of the Kishida regime do not fundamentally change this stance, the administration of the regime will be in further trouble.
Analysts pointed out that since there is no obvious opposition force within the Liberal Democratic Party, and the opposition party does not have the strength to overthrow the Kishida regime, Japan may see a situation in which the Kishida regime survives in the future, but the support rate continues to slump.
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[Responsible editor: Qiu Lifang]
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2023-08-31 10:26:52
