Support for Japan’s Ishiba dwindles amid talk of successor

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is struggling in opinion polls as voters fret about rising prices, stagnant wages and tense regional security

Reading Time:3 minutes

Speculation is mounting over Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s future. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:00am, 16 Apr 2025Updated: 9:09am, 16 Apr 2025

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is fast running out of political lifelines as dismal poll numbers have heightened speculation that his party may let him take the fall against a gloomy backdrop of rising prices, security threats and stubborn demographic challenges.

Three separate surveys published in recent days show public support for Ishiba’s government sinking to new lows, as analysts predict his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could suffer another crushing defeat in the elections for the House of Councillors in July.

The warning signs come just nine months after the LDP lost its majority in the House of Representatives. Ishiba retained power only by forming a fragile minority government in partnership with the LDP’s junior coalition ally, Komeito – but analysts say he has done little since to arrest the party’s downward spiral.

“No one can understand what he is trying to do,” said Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor of politics and international relations at Tokyo’s Waseda University.

“People are looking at each other and asking, ‘What are his policies?’. It is that fundamental … He just does not come across as a statesman.”

Japan’s voters were “very disappointed” in the administration, Shigemura told This Week in Asia, adding that most Japanese sensed there had been a dearth of strong and decisive leaders since the late former prime minister Shinzo Abe stepped down in September 2020.