By Satoshi Ogawa

8:00 JST, June 1, 2024

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has claimed that he surpasses other politicians in his “ability to listen.” But recently, he is seen as a politician who surpasses others in his “ability to be obtuse,” which means he doesn’t care much about other people’s voices and seems to never give up. This makes Japan’s political future more and more unpredictable.

The approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet was 26% in the latest Yomiuri Shimbun poll, conducted in May, falling below 30% for the seventh month in a row. Most Diet members in the Liberal Democratic Party feel such ratings are not only too low for the next general election but also too low for Kishida to be reelected in the LDP presidential election in September.

Utter defeat in April by-elections followed by a loss in the Shizuoka gubernatorial election showed a strong headwind is blowing against the LDP. Political pundits remember then Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s resignation in 2021. In the spring, the LDP lost in by-elections for the House of Representatives in Hokkaido and for the House of Councillors in Nagano and Hiroshima prefectures. Those results undermined Suga’s political momentum. Then another defeat accelerated that trend. In August, the LDP lost the mayoral election in Yokohama, which........

© The Japan News