Voters narrowly support Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba remaining in office despite heavy election losses, an Asahi Shimbun poll showed, but they express broad unease over the consumption tax rate at a time of rising costs.

Forty-seven percent of voters said Ishiba does not have to resign over the outcome of the July 20 Upper House election, while 41 percent said he should leave, the survey found.

In the election, the ruling coalition of Ishiba’s Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito lost its majority in the Upper House. It lost control of the Diet’s more powerful lower chamber in October.

The nationwide telephone survey asked voters about a range of political and economic matters, including the government’s handling of tariff talks with the United States. It was conducted on July 26-27.

Asked to pick one of two reasons for why the LDP suffered such a crushing defeat, 81 percent selected “There are problems with the entire LDP.” Ten percent selected “There are problems with Ishiba himself.”

Even among LDP supporters themselves, 81 percent cited problems with the entire LDP.

Since the election, Ishiba has come under growing pressure within the LDP to resign. However, the Asahi poll found only 22 percent of LDP supporters want him to step down. 

As many as 70 percent of LDP supporters said Ishiba does not have to quit. 

In the Upper House election, the Democratic Party for the People and Sanseito sharply increased their presence, while the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan barely managed to maintain its strength.

About 70 percent of both DPP and Sanseito supporters said Ishiba should resign, whereas 60 percent of CDP supporters said he does not have to.

As for satisfaction with how the country is being run, the survey put the Cabinet’s approval rating at 29 percent, down from 32 percent in an Asahi survey conducted on June 14-15. Approval has fallen below 30 percent for the second time since October, when Ishiba became prime minister.

The Cabinet’s disapproval rating rose to 56 percent, up from 52 percent in the previous survey.

Asked about who they want to see in the next government, 56 percent of respondents said they favor an opposition party or opposition parties joining the LDP-Komeito coalition.

Twenty-one percent said they expect opposition parties to form a new government, and 13 percent said they want the LDP-Komeito coalition to continue without change.

If the LDP and Komeito choose to ally with only one opposition party to regain a majority in the Lower House, the potential candidates are the CDP, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) or the DPP.

The Asahi Shimbun survey asked voters which of these three they want to see join the coalition.

Twenty-six percent picked the DPP, 19 percent selected the CDP and 12 percent chose Nippon Ishin.

Thirty-six percent said the party they most want to be part of the coalition government is not among these three.

The survey asked about which party the voters support.

Twenty percent of all respondents said they support the LDP.

Sanseito followed, with a 10-percent support rating, sharply up from 3 percent in the previous survey. It was followed by the DPP with 8 percent, the CDP with 7 percent, Nippon Ishin with 4 percent and Komeito, also with 4 percent.

Eleven parties have a support rating of 1 percent or more, up from nine parties in June.

Meanwhile, the survey indicated that the Japan-U.S. trade deal announced on July 23 changed people’s perceptions of how the Ishiba administration handled U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Forty percent of respondents approved of the government’s response, compared with 44 percent who did not, which was a major change from previous polls.

In Asahi Shimbun surveys in April and May, only 24 percent of respondents said they appreciated the handling and 60 percent said they did not.

The survey also asked about the consumption tax rate, a key issue in the Upper House election.

Just over one in three respondents, or 34 percent, said the current rate should remain, down from 41 percent in the June survey but similar to the 36 percent who in the April survey expressed support for the existing rate.

In all, 59 percent said they want the rate lowered, even if temporarily. This percentage is up from 51 percent in June, again returning to the level last seen in April.

This issue arose in the Upper House election in different ways: Opposition parties called for slashing the consumption tax rate to cushion rising living costs, while the coalition parties proposed cash handouts instead.

Fifty-four percent of LDP supporters and 50 percent of Komeito supporters said they want the current rate to be maintained.

About 70 percent of both CDP and DPP supporters and 74 percent of Sanseito supporters said they want a rate cut.

The survey was conducted through calls to randomly generated telephone numbers. There were 497 valid responses from voters contacted by landline, or 50 percent of the total, and 753 valid responses from those contacted by cellphones, or 40 percent.