Japan Cabinet's poll ratings drop

Latest Japanese opinion polls show support for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet has continued to decline, reaching its lowest level since she took office. Experts said the drop reflects growing public doubts about the administration's governing philosophy, policy competence and approach to governance.

The approval ratings fell to 41 percent in a Mainichi Shimbun survey conducted on Saturday and Sunday, their lowest level since the administration came into office in October 2025. A Kyodo News poll at the same time also found that the approval rate for Takaichi's Cabinet fell 3.5 percentage points from the previous survey in July to 50.2 percent.

The key focus of the weekend polls was the government's plan to cut the consumption tax on food from the current 8 percent to 1 percent for two years starting in April 2027.

The support for the policy stood at 54 percent in a Yomiuri Shimbun survey and 52.7 percent in the Kyodo News poll. An ANN survey found that 47 percent of respondents supported the measure, while 42 percent opposed it. Mainichi's survey showed a different trend, with 47 percent of respondents viewing the policy negatively, compared with 33 percent who viewed it positively.

Although three of the four polls showed more respondents supporting the tax cut than opposing it, anxiety over its consequences for government coffers remained high.

A high percentage of Kyodo's respondents, 71.7 percent, expressed concern over the impact of the tax cut on government finances, while a similar proportion expressed the same concern in ANN's poll.

Yomiuri's poll found that a majority of respondents were worried that the tax cut could make it more difficult for the government to sustain the social security system. Many questioned whether the government would be able to restore the tax to its original rate after the two years.

Besides, according to the Kyodo poll, 42.6 percent of respondents said they disapproved of Takaichi's decision to omit the word "remorse" from her address at a ceremony on Aug 15 marking Japan's defeat in World War II.

Liu Shuliang, an associate researcher at the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, said that public concerns over the tax cut policy underscore the continued pressure Japanese households face from rising prices and higher living costs.

The government's economic and livelihood policies, dubbed "Sanaenomics" by the media for their resemblance to "Abenomics" by former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, are essentially election-driven measures aimed at securing short-term political support, rather than addressing Japan's long-standing structural economic problems, Liu said.

He noted that in response to mounting public concerns over rising prices and the increasing cost of living, the Takaichi administration has introduced measures such as consumption tax cuts in an effort to win public support by offering immediate policy benefits.

"However, such measures could further increase fiscal risks and place a heavier burden on future governments and generations, while the administration appears both unwilling and unable to pursue structural reforms that would challenge Japan's entrenched vested interests," he added.

Slush fund scandal

Chen Hong, director of East China Normal University's Asia Pacific Studies Center in Shanghai, highlighted that 73.8 percent of respondents in the Kyodo News poll opposed Takaichi's plan to appoint lawmakers implicated in a political slush fund scandal to key positions.

These findings indicate that the Japanese public remains deeply dissatisfied with political funding scandals, political ethics and what is often described as "Liberal Democratic Party-style factional politics". It also suggests that such problems remain deeply rooted in Japanese politics and have yet to be effectively addressed, Chen said.

Since taking office, the Takaichi administration has pursued a distinctly conservative, and in some areas, right-leaning policy agenda, experts said.

"Over the past year or so, the Takaichi Cabinet's policies on national security, foreign affairs, historical perceptions and reform of the imperial household system have increasingly aligned with the core demands of Japan's right-wing forces, further pushing Japanese politics in a right-leaning direction," Liu said.

The administration's rightward political shift is likely to exacerbate long-standing ideological divisions between the left and right in Japanese politics and society, prompting political forces and social groups to take more clearly defined sides, Chen said.

"This could weaken social cohesion, undermine political and social stability, and further deepen polarization in Japanese society," he added.