Nikkei: 47% of Japanese “favor” the meeting between Ishiba and Trump

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The results of a public opinion survey conducted by Nikkei and TV Tokyo from February 21 to 23 showed that the approval rating of Ishiba’s cabinet was 40%, which was 3 percentage points lower than the previous survey in January and remained basically the same. The proportion of “disapproval” of Ishiba’s cabinet rose by 2 percentage points to 52%.

Regarding the results of the summit meeting between the Japanese Prime Minister and US President Trump on February 7, 47% of Japanese respondents “favored” and 42% “disfavored”. The two leaders confirmed their intention to strengthen the Japan-US alliance in their first face-to-face meeting.

In terms of policy issues that they hope the prime minister will prioritize, the largest number of respondents answered “price countermeasures” at 44%. The second was “overall economy” at 34%, and “pensions” at 29%.

The first reason for supporting the Ishiba cabinet was “trustworthy character” (42%), followed by “because it is a cabinet centered on the Liberal Democratic Party” (25%). The first reason for not supporting the cabinet is “bad policies” (32%), followed by “because it is a cabinet centered on the Liberal Democratic Party” (29%).

In terms of the public’s support for various political parties in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party is 30%, the Democratic Party for the People is 13%, the Constitutional Democratic Party is 11%, the Japan Restoration Party is 6%, and the independent group who do not support a specific party is 21%. In the January survey, the support rates for the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party for the People, the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Restoration Party were 33%, 14%, 10% and 6% respectively, and the independent group was 20%, and the support rate for the Liberal Democratic Party fell slightly.

This survey was conducted by Nikkei Research Company from February 21 to 23 through a random digit dialing (RDD) method on men and women over the age of 18 across Japan, and a total of 847 responses were obtained, with a response rate of 35.7%.