Photo/Illutration

Fifty-six percent of voters gave Prime Minister Fumio Kishida failing grades for his three years in office, exceeding the 42 percent who approved his accomplishments, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

Specifically, 40 percent of respondents said Kishida’s performance as prime minister was “somewhat poor” while 16 percent said it was “poor,” according to the survey conducted on Aug. 24 and 25.

Just 3 percent of survey respondents gave Kishida a “high evaluation,” and 39 percent gave a “somewhat high evaluation.” 

Kishida will not run in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s presidential election in September, meaning he will step down as prime minister this fall.

Among LDP supporters in the survey, 67 percent gave Kishida positive reviews, compared with 33 percent who gave negative evaluations.

The evaluation ratios were reversed among unaffiliated voters. Sixty-two percent of them gave the prime minister failing grades, while 34 percent gave positive evaluations.

By age group, respondents in their 30s were the harshest critics, with 66 percent of them giving Kishida failing grades.

When asked which political party should be in charge of the next administration, 42 percent of respondents answered “the LDP,” up 4 percentage points from the previous survey conducted in July.

Forty-three percent of respondents answered “a party other than the LDP,” down 5 percentage points from the previous survey.

The once-wide gap between “pro-LDP” and “anti-LDP” responses shrank in the latest survey.

The approval rate for the Kishida Cabinet was 23 percent, down 3 percentage points from the previous survey conducted in July. The disapproval rate was 62 percent, up 1 point.

The survey was conducted through calls to randomly generated telephone numbers. There were 420 valid responses through landlines, or 44 percent of the total, and 638 responses via mobile phones, or 39 percent.

The total number of valid responses was 1,058.

Related News