Ishiba turns a corner?

Beneath the headline numbers, public opinion shifts towards the government

Thank you for reading Observing Japan. This post is available to paid subscribers.

If you are looking for timely, forward-looking analysis of the stories in Japans’s politics and policymaking that move markets, I have launched a new service through my business, Japan Foresight LLC. For more information about Japan Foresight’s services or for information on how to sign up for a trial or schedule a briefing, please visit our website or reach out to me.

All readers can access regularly updated charts of a ten-day moving average of the government’s popularity here.

---

Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru receives a petition for a public order bill from Takaichi Sanae, the rival he bested for the LDP leadership last year. Source: LDP

It is still not visible in the government’s approval ratings – which remain notable largely for how stable its net approval has been, both in absolute terms and when adjusted for pollster biases – but new polls from the Nikkei Shimbun and Kyodo News (a flash poll conducted a week after Kyodo’s regular monthly poll) point to underlying shifts in the government and ruling coalition’s favor that may suggest growing momentum heading into the final weeks of the Diet session and the upper house campaign.