Anyone but Kishida?

Despite a slight bounce, the public looks ready for a change

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Prime Minister Kishida Fumio speaks at a meeting announcing the Liberal Democratic Party’s candidates for next year’s upper house elections. Source: LDP.

Prime Minister Kishida Fumio is now within the final two months of his term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and his future still hangs in the balance.

Kihara Seiji, a deputy LDP secretary-general and one of Kishida’s closest advisers, said on Wednesday, 24 July that he does not think that the prime minister will back out of the leadership race. Kishida himself has not revealed his plans one way or another, but a meeting with Asō Tarō on Thursday suggests that he is continuing to seek the party boss’s backing ahead of the leadership vote.

A wave of public opinion polling last weekend, however, suggests that his position remains tenuous. First, although his net approval rose slightly in several polls – Mainichi (from -60 to -52), Asahi (from -44 to -35), Yomiuri (-41 to -37), and Kyodo (-40 to -36) – his government’s net approval is still abysmally low. The public continues to be disappointed in Kishida himself and has signaled that it is ready for a change. In the Asahi poll, for example, 74% said that they do not want Kishida to serve beyond the end of his term in September; only 18% support his continuing in power. Meanwhile, 66% of respondents indicated that they do not think that Kishida has demonstrated leadership. In Mainichi, 70% support a change of leader, with only 11% thinking that Kishida should be reelected in September.