Japan Digest
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
Ishiba Cabinet Sets Upper House Election for July 3 Announcement, July 20 Voting At a Cabinet meeting on the morning of June 24, it was decided that the upcoming House of Councillors (Upper House) election will be formally announced on July 3, with voting and ballot counting to take place on July 20. Key campaign issues are expected to include rising prices, rice policy, and how to respond to tariff measures imposed by the Trump administration in the United States. Of the House of Councillors'...
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
PM Ishiba To Structure Campaign Pledges for the Upcoming House of Councillors Election Of This Summer On the 9th of June, Prime Minister Ishiba (also LDP President) instructed senior party officials to include in the party’s election platform a goal to raise Japan’s nominal GDP to 1,000 trillion yen by 2040. He also requested that the platform aim for an increase of more than 50% in the average national income. Later, speaking to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office, he stated, “I...
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
Ishiba Cabinet’s Approval Rating Stays Low According to a Nihon Keizai Shimbun and TV Tokyo’s joint opinion poll conducted over three days starting May 23, targeting people aged 18 and older across Japan: 34% of respondents said they "support" the Ishiba Cabinet, an increase of 1 percentage point compared to the April survey. Meanwhile, 60% said they "do not support" the Cabinet, no change from the last month. The policy issue that respondents most wanted the Prime Minister to prioritize...
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
Ishiba Cabinet’s Approval Rating Drops By 2 Points According to an NHK opinion poll conducted over three days starting May 9, targeting people aged 18 and older across Japan: 33% of respondents said they "support" the Ishiba Cabinet, a decrease of 2 percentage points compared to the April survey. Meanwhile, 48% said they "do not support" the Cabinet, an increase of 3 percentage points. When asked whether they were concerned about the impact of the U.S. Trump administration’s tariff measures...
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
Minister Akazawa Visits the U.S. for Second Round of Tariff Negotiations Minister Akazawa of Economic and Fiscal Policy and Economic Revitalization visited the United States this Wednesday and held the second round of tariff negotiations with the U.S. on May 1. The Japanese side is believed to have entered the talks with negotiation cards including the expansion of agricultural imports and the enhancement of special measures for imported automobiles. In addition, Japan emphasized its track...
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
Ishiba’s Approval Rating Stays Low In a nationwide public opinion poll conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun from April 11 to 13, the approval rating for the Ishiba Cabinet stood at 31%, the same as the previous survey (conducted March 14–16), which had been the lowest since the cabinet's inauguration. The disapproval rating was 54%, down 4 points from the previous 58%. Due to the tariff policies of the Trump administration, 88% of respondents said they were "concerned" about the negative impact...
Japan Digest · 2025/06/29
Ishiba’s Approval Rating Continues To Decline According to a joint public opinion poll conducted by Nikkei and TV Tokyo between March 21 and 23, the approval rating for the Ishiba Cabinet dropped by 5 percentage points from the previous month to 35%. The disapproval rating rose by 7 points to 59%. The decline is believed to be linked to revelations that Prime Minister Ishiba hosted a private appreciation party at the Prime Minister’s residence for first-term Liberal Democratic Party members...
Japan Digest · 2025/03/15
Ishiba’s Approval Rating Declined By 8 Points According to the results of an NHK poll conducted from March 7 to 9, support for the Ishiba Cabinet dropped by 8 points from the February survey to 36%, while those who responded that they "do not support" the cabinet rose by 10 points to 45%. Although the Cabinet received some level of recognition for negotiating with opposition parties as a minority ruling party to pass the revised 2025 budget bill through the House of Representatives and for...
Japan Digest · 2025/03/15
Meeting With President Trump Didn’t Help Push Up Ishiba’s Approval Ratings According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun from February 14 to 16, the approval rating of the Ishiba Cabinet was 39%, down by one point from last month’s survey. The disapproval rating was 43%, a three-point decrease from the previous poll. Regarding the summit meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump held on February 7, 51% of respondents said they "approve" of it, surpassing the 38% who...
Japan Digest · 2025/03/15
Ishiba Hopes To Push Up His Approval Ratings Through Foreign Visits Nikkei reported this week that the results of opinion polls conducted by various media outlets in January regarding support for the Ishiba Cabinet are seen in the table below: Survey Period Approval Rating Disapproval Rating Nikkei Jan 24 – 26 43% (+2 points) 50% (-1 point) Kyodo Jan 25 – 26 35.7 (-0.8) 49.2 (+6.1) Asahi Jan 18 – 19 33 (-3) 51 (+8) Sankei Jan 18 – 19 43.5 (-2.4) 48.7 (+1) Yomiuri Jan 17 – 19 40 (+1)...