It’s hard out there for a Prime Minister. At least according to Japan’s Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru. Here he is trying to hold a frail coalition government together and what does he get for it? According to Ishiba, not even a measly positive editorial.
In comments at a speech in Tokyo on Friday, Ishiba lamented that the work of a modern Prime Minister is “five to 10 times” harder than his predecessor’s and it’s “exhausting.”
He went on to complain, “You read the newspapers and no one’s singing your praises, you look online and its hurts even more, you can hardly sleep.”
Ishiba perhaps has good reason to be grumpy. He served as Japan’s Prime Minister for one month, replacing deeply unpopular predecessor Kishida Fumio, and called a snap election for Japan’s House of Representatives. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority in that election – the first time the LDP’s been the minority party in Japan’s most powerful legislative chamber in 15 years.
Ishiba remains Prime Minister in a tenuous ruling coalition with various opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and the up-and-coming Democratic Party for the People (DPFP). As time goes on, however, his public approval keeps slipping. In NHK’s latest polling, he’s tied at 38% approval/disapproval. (Kishida left over with a massive 60% disapproval, so…hey, there’s that.)
As you might expect, net users weren’t sympathetic to Ishiba’s pity party.
“If he thought his occasional grumbling would endear the people to him, he’s gravely mistaken,” one user wrote.
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