Plenty of malaise to go around

Ishiba has not turned the crisis to his advantage, but neither has anyone else

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

Polling data

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Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru hosts Denmark’s Victoria Kjær Theilvig, Miss Universe 2024, and Kaya Chakrabortty, Miss Universe Japan 2024, at the Kantei on 23 April. Source: Prime Minister’s Office of Japan

Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, still facing what the political establishment is united in conceiving of a national crisis, has shown no signs of being able to turn the crisis to his advantage at home.

A new series of polls conducted last weekend – by Asahi TV, Fuji TV-Sankei Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, and Nikkei Shimbun – showed that his government’s approval ratings, while stable, remain underwater. In my ten-day moving average, his net approval remains slightly better than it was in March, after the gift-giving scandal surfaced, but at -25 it is still not a comfortable place for the government to be.

When adjusting for house effects, that figure is virtually identical, at -24.