Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s approval rating has fallen to around 10%. This is the first time in 11 years that the approval rating of an incumbent prime minister in Japan has fallen below 20% since the Liberal Democratic Party took back power from the Democratic Party in 2012. If we apply the so-called ‘Aoki’s Law’, which states that the government will collapse if the combined approval rating of the prime minister and the ruling party falls below 50%, the Kishida government has already passed the point of resignation.
According to a Japan News Agency opinion poll released on the 14th, Prime Minister Kishida’s approval rating was 17.1% and the Liberal Democratic Party’s approval rating was 18.3%. The approval rating of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party (4.4%) is still very low, so the possibility of a change of government through general elections is still slim, but public opinion toward the Kishida administration is worsening as suspicions about the creation of slush funds by the Liberal Democratic Party faction grow.
On this day, Prime Minister Kishida carried out a cabinet reshuffle, replacing all four ministers and five vice ministers of the party’s largest Abe faction, including former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who is suspected of creating illegal slush funds, with non-Abe factions, but it was not effective. did not see
View largerChief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa HayashiOn this day, former Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who was the chairman of the Kishida faction of the Liberal Democratic Party and participated in discussions on improving Korea-Japan relations, was appointed as Chief Cabinet Secretary, the second-in-command in the government and government spokesperson, three months after leaving office. Minister Hayashi said, “I received a proposal from Prime Minister Kishida to help us as we are in a difficult situation. “It’s a lightning-quick situation,” he said, but “I will do my best to do my best.”
Minister Hayashi, who served as Foreign Minister from November 2021 to September of this year, has been considered the person to lead the moderate faction of the Liberal Democratic Party following Prime Minister Kishida. Because he has enormous political influence and is from the same faction as Prime Minister Kishida, there is a strong atmosphere of checks and balances within the party, so Prime Minister Kishida, as well as other factions, was not initially selected as the first choice for Chief Cabinet Secretary.
However, as other leading candidates declined the offer to become Chief Cabinet Secretary one after another, a ‘turnaround appointment’ was made to entrust the position to Minister Hayashi. The Yomiuri Shimbun evaluated the appointment of Minister Hayashi as a desperate measure and pointed out, “It is unclear how much factional cooperation will occur.” The Asahi Shimbun analyzed, “The prime minister’s centripetal power may further decline due to personnel twists and turns.” Although Minister Hayashi is regarded as anti-Korean, it is predicted that he will not have the power to pay attention to Korea-Japan relations in a regime crisis.
The Tokyo District Prosecutors’ Office special department, which is investigating the alleged slush fund creation, plans to focus its investigative power on the Abe faction, which is suspected of systematically collecting billions of won in slush funds under the leadership’s instructions. Accordingly, it is planned to summon and investigate former Abe faction cabinet members and lawmakers involved in the slush fund suspicions. It is highly likely that the prosecution investigation, which has been focused on interviewing witnesses and reviewing documents, will soon develop into a compulsory investigation, including search and seizure of faction offices and residences.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.