The plunge

Ishiba's approval ratings fall sharply

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Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru takes questions in the House of Councillors budget committee on 17 March. Screenshot by author.

It may not have come as a surprise, but it was stunning nevertheless.

The government’s support collapsed in the first polls conducted following Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru’s admission that he distributed gifts to first-term Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), gifts that troubled the recipients enough that all returned them even as Ishiba claimed they were not in violation of the political funds control law.