Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - According to a survey released on Thursday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's popularity has dipped less...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - According to a survey released on Thursday, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's popularity has dipped less than a month before a legislative election, with more than half of voters dissatisfied of his government's handling of rising costs.
Kishida took office in September and will lead his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a vote for the upper house of parliament on July 10.
Voters overwhelmingly approved of his management of the coronavirus outbreak and his response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, therefore his popularity has remained strong.
According to a survey done earlier this week by Jiji News Agency, support fell 2.1 points from the previous month's survey to 48.1 percent, falling below 50 percent for the first time in four months.
More than half of those polled (54.1%) believed his government's handling of a wave of price increases triggered by the Russian invasion and the fall of the Japanese yen to a 24-year low was inadequate, and that not enough had been done.
The findings are similar to those of a Kyodo News Agency poll released earlier this week, which revealed that 64.1 percent of respondents did not like Kishida's handling of price hikes, while his support fell 4.6 points to 56.9%.
Despite the fact that Japan's economy is forecast to grow by 4.1 percent on an annualised basis this quarter as the coronavirus outbreak fades, a drop in the yen threatens to dampen consumer optimism as higher fuel and food costs hit families.
Despite this, the LDP is widely projected to win the election, owing to opposition party infighting.
