“People’s complaints are on the verge of exploding”… Japan’s Suga stands near the risk of approval ratings

‘30% or less’
This is the approval rating that Japanese political experts say as’the risky level of the cabinet’s existence’. Japan’s Suga Yoshihide Cabinet approval rating fell from the 60-70% range in the early stage to 33% in four months. In the Liberal Democratic Party, there is even a story saying, “Now it is difficult for Sugaro.”

According to a poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun in collaboration with the Social Research and Research Center on the 16th, the Suga cabinet approval rate was 33%, down 7 percentage points from last month’s survey. Compared to the survey (64%) of the same institution in September last year, right after taking office, it plunged 31 percentage points.

In this survey, 57% of respondents said’do not support’, up 8 percentage points from the previous survey. ‘No support’ was 24 percentage points ahead of’support’.

In the opinion poll conducted by the support news agency on the 8th and 11th, the Suga cabinet approval rate was 34.2%, down 8.9 percentage points from the survey last month.

The cause of the drop in approval ratings is the response to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). An executive of the Liberal Democratic Party told Mainichi, “All the causes of the decline in approval ratings are Corona 19. Now, people are full of irritation and dissatisfaction.”

Despite the rapid spread of Corona 19, Prime Minister Suga stubbornly pushed the travel support policy, “Go To Travel,” and stopped until 80% of public opinion opposes it. The’emergency declaration’, which was currently issued in 11 cities including the metropolitan area, was delayed until the end due to fear of adverse effects on the economy, but was issued belatedly as the clamors of local government heads increased.

In fact, in this survey, 71% of respondents to the declaration of an emergency said it was “late”.

Prime Minister Suga’s’communication ability’, such as dry answers and repeated mistakes, also climbed on the cutting board. When Prime Minister Suga announced on the 13th to expand the area where the emergency was issued, he misread “Fukuoka” as “Shizuoka” and confuse the people. A member of the Liberal Democratic Party said, “Among young people, there are many people who worry about the prime minister’s lack of energy.”

With the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections in July of this year and the expiration of the term of the House of Representatives in October, there are voices from within the Liberal Democratic Party that “Sugaro is difficult,” said Mainichi. “If you don’t change to a new governor before the election for the House of Representatives, the number of seats in the LDP will be greatly reduced.”

The Japanese government is in the mood for vaccination starting at the end of February. Until then, if the number of infected people can be reduced as much as possible and vaccinations can proceed smoothly and preparations for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games can be started, the approval rating may turn to a recovery trend.

But Olympic skepticism is spreading. The New York Times in the US on the 15th (local time) quoted officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and published an article saying, “Hopes for hosting the Tokyo Olympics are fading due to the spread of the Corona 19 infection.”

In an interview with Reuters news agency on the 14th, Taro Kono of Japan also said, “At this point we need to do our best to prepare for the competition, but this (Olympic) can go either way.” In other words, it was the first Japanese minister to mention the possibility of canceling the Olympics.

Tokyo = Correspondent Lee Young-hee [email protected]