Japan Press Weekly

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2022 December 14 - 20 [POLITICS]

Growing public backlash against tax hikes for military buildup brings cabinet approval rating to new low: Koike

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira at a press conference in the Diet building on December 19 said that the Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating hit a new record low in opinion polls conducted by media outlets, and that this represents public objection to the government move to force the people to pay more for a military buildup.

The Mainichi Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun, and Kyodo News conducted opinion surveys, respectively, on December 17 and 18. In the Mainichi poll, the approval rate decreased by six points from the previous survey last month to 25%, marking a new record low. The Asahi and Kyodo surveys gave similar results.

Koike pointed out that Prime Minister Kishida made a drastic shift in postwar Japan’s security policy in regard to the possession of an enemy-base strike capability and decided to increase taxes for a military buildup without holding Diet discussions and explaining its decision before the public. He said, “With the government’s military-first policy taking shape, more and more people have become concerned about possible cuts in government spending for social services and for the improvement of people’s livelihoods. This was reflected in the results of the latest opinion polls.”

Koike noted that in the Kyodo survey, among respondents who answered they do not “support” Kishida’s decision to impose tax hikes for a military buildup, those aged under 39 accounted for 75.7% of those surveyed. He said, “This indicates that the younger generation is expressing anger at the Kishida administration for this decision. This is because, although the government trumpets a policy to double the childrearing budget, it gives no details on how to achieve this, while it intends to bulldoze through tax increases in order to fund the doubling of the military budget.”