Japan’s first female Prime Minister is apparently also its eepiest.
Things had been going well for Takaichi Sanae up until now. Her cabinet’s approval sat somewhere in the 50% to 70% range. Her tactic of blaming foreigners for everything wrong with Japan seemed to be working. At least for a while.
Then the bottom fell out. Across the board, every media poll shows the PM’s soft support collapsing. Mainichi led the way, showing her approval collapse 10 points from 51% to 41%. For the first time, her disapproval rating (44%) outpaced her approval. Other polls from major news outlets showed that Mainichi’s number wasn’t an outlier, either.
What caused the dip? It’s hard to say, as Japanese approval polls only ask for general reasons a voter does or doesn’t support a candidate. But here’s what some political commentators inside Japan are saying.
