Japan Voters Unhappy With PM’s Price Policies, Poll Shows

Isabel Reynolds
·2 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- More than three quarters of Japanese voters are unhappy with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s handling of price rises, according to a poll carried out by the Asahi newspaper.

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About 77% of respondents to the survey carried out Sept. 16-17 said they didn’t rate his price policies positively, compared with 17% who said they did. The findings came in a poll that showed that overall support for Kishida’s cabinet had crept up by four percentage points to 37% following last week’s cabinet reshuffle.

Price rises have been outpacing wage increases, meaning households are feeling the pinch. That’s weighing on Kishida’s approval ratings as he faces a decision on whether to call a general election a year ahead of a party leadership vote.

Kishida has sought to ease the blow by extending subsidies on gasoline, electricity and household gas, a move approved of by 73% of respondents to the Asahi survey.

Women Take Record Five Japan Cabinet Posts Even as Equality Lags

The poll is one of a series to show lackluster support for Kishida’s cabinet after the reshuffle in which he kept his core economic policy team in place and increased the number of women ministers.

Another survey by broadcaster FNN published Monday showed support falling below 40% for the first time in eight months, while offering a potential pathway for Kishida to try and claw back support.

The poll results indicated almost 90% said the government should seek the disbandment of the fringe religious group whose links with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party became a scandal after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last year.

(Updates with FNN poll in final two paragraphs.)

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