Japanese PM Kishida Cabinet support rating 25%, the lowest since the start of the government.

The Mainichi Shimbun conducted a nationwide public opinion poll on 17 and 18 November. The approval rating for Kishida’s cabinet was 25%, down 6 points from 31% in the previous survey conducted on 19 and 20 November and the lowest since the government was formed in October 2021. The disapproval rating was 69%, up 7 points from the previous survey (62%). Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s indication that he intends to finance the increase in defence spending by increasing taxes by over ¥1 trillion is thought to have contributed to the drop in support.

On the Government’s policy to significantly increase defence spending, 48% of respondents were in favour, more than the 41% who were opposed. The “don’t know” option was selected by 10% of respondents. The Government has set the total defence expenditure for FY2011-FY27 at 43 trillion yen in order to strengthen defence capabilities. By gender, 56% of men were in favour and 38% opposed, while 35% of women were in favour and 46% opposed. By age group, more respondents in their 50s (over 50 years old) and below were ‘for’ than ‘against’, while those in their 60s (over 60 years old) and above were more ‘against’ than ‘for’.

23% of respondents were ‘in favour’ of raising taxes to finance increased defence spending, far less than the 69% who were ‘against’. 20% were ‘in favour’ of cutting other policy costs such as social security expenditure, significantly less than the 73% who were ‘against’. 33% were ‘for’ issuing government bonds, while 52% were ‘against’.

Even among those who answered ‘yes’ to increasing defence spending, more than 50% were ‘no’ to both raising taxes and cutting policy spending. More than 50% were ‘in favour’ of the ‘government bond issue’.

The Government of Japan plans to raise taxes to cover a shortfall of just over ¥1 trillion of the ¥4 trillion in financial resources that will be required in FY27 as a result of the increase in defence expenditure. The remaining approximately 3 trillion yen will be covered by expenditure reform, financial surpluses and non-tax revenues.

With regard to the Government’s decision to possess a counterattack capability (enemy base attack capability) to strike missile launch sites in other countries, 59% of respondents were in favour and 27% were opposed. Although the results cannot be simply compared due to the different questioning methods, in the 21 May survey, 66% were ‘in favour’ of possessing such a capability and 22% were ‘against’ it.

Political party support was 25% for the Liberal Democratic Party (29% in the previous survey), 12% for the Japan Restoration Association (12%), 11% for the Constitutional Democratic Party (12%), 5% for the Communist Party (3%), 5% for the Reiwa Shinsengumi (4%), 5% for the National Democratic Party (4%), 3% for the New Komeito Party (3%), 2% for the NHK Party (1%), 2% for the Sangyo Party (3%) – and others, 29% of independents said they had no party to support (26% of independents).

The survey was conducted using a combination of a method using the short message (SMS) function on mobile phones and an automated voice answering questions on fixed-line phones, and 602 valid responses were received from mobile phones and 411 from fixed-line phones. Nanae Ito.

Source: https://mainichi.jp/articles/20221218/k00/00m/010/092000c

Source 2: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/2244418e07421f1fc8a2bc6f8eb15d92003a5043

Comments section: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/2244418e07421f1fc8a2bc6f8eb15d92003a5043/comments

See also: [The only way to finance the children’s budget is to increase consumption tax, a “wall” that Prime Minister Kishida must face in his “serious measures” against the declining birthrate](https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/9a6e848e184566f6a8043a50a9da8915b42032bf?) (in Japanese)

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