August 23, 2022

The approval rating for Prime Minister Kishida Fumio's Cabinet took a nosedive in opinion polls conducted by news organizations on August 20 and 21.

A "Mainichi Shimbun" poll found that the Kishida Cabinet's approval rating was 36%, down 16 percentage points from the previous poll. On the other hand, the disapproval rating rose by 17 percentage points to 54%. Regarding the link between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (the Moonies or formerly named the Unification Church), 87% of respondents think "it is problematic".

In an ANN poll, the approval rating dropped by 9.9 percentage points to 43.7% and the disapproval rating rose by 10.0 percentage points to 32.7%. Regarding investigations or explanations that political parties and individual politicians made about their relations with the Moonies, 80% respondents think that these were "insufficient", far exceeding the "sufficient" response of 8%.

In a "Sankei Shimbun" survey, 81.2% answered that they are "dissatisfied" with explanations given by Cabinet members and politicians about their ties with the Moonies while only 11.1% responded "satisfied".

Asked by the press in the Diet building for a comment on the falling approval rate for the Cabinet, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on August 22 said, "The major cause is obvious. It is because people are turning suspicious eyes to the link between the LDP and the Moonies."

Koike continued to say, "Relations between the Moonies and several Cabinet members, senior vice-ministers, and parliamentary secretaries came to the surface one after another. Many people think that LDP politicians should sever their relationship with the Moonies. The LDP, however, is unwilling to reveal the full picture of the LDP-Moonies connection, provoking public criticism."

Koike added, "Even after many controversial ties with the Moonies were revealed, PM Kishida is refusing to hold a Diet session to discuss this issue among others. It is unbelievable. We have a mountain of issues to discuss, including the LDP-Moonies link, ex-PM Abe's state funeral, the COVID-19 pandemic's seventh wave, and the steep rise in prices." He demanded that an extraordinary session of the Diet be convened without delay.