Hope for Ishiba?

New polls suggest that Ishiba's position, while not great, is hardly indefensible

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Polling data

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Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and senior government officials meet with ruling party representatives on 13 May. Source: Prime Minister’s Office of Japan

Polling slowed over the Golden Week holidays, but with the politics back in swing, new polls are being released.

By and large, the Ishiba government’s situation is unchanged. With new polls conducted over the weekend by Asahi News Network and NHK, the government’s net approval has improved slightly to -23.1 (house effects adjusted), marginally between than the -25.6 net approval at the start of May.

In general, the shift has been driven by a slight decline in disapproval rather than a bump in the government’s approval, which is consistent with the pattern that has prevailed since the beginning of the Ishiba government, with greater volatility in the average disapproval even as the average approval has stayed around 35% for lengthy stretches of Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru’s tenure.