Ishiba's Trump bump?
The first post-summit poll delivers good news for the prime minister
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The first opinion poll following Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on 7 February – a poll conducted by NHK over the weekend – has been published, and it confirms that, at least for Ishiba’s political standing, the summit was a triumph.
The poll recorded a ten-point swing in the Ishiba government’s net approval, from -1 to +9; his disapproval fell five points, from 40% to 35%, and his approval rose from 39% to 44%. In my ten-day moving average – which has a relatively small sample since the NHK poll is the first new poll in a week – average net approval swung from -22.6 to just over even.
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