A gift handout by Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba affected him negatively as several polls show his approval rate dropping.
On March 3, PM Ishiba used “pocket money” to hand out gift certificates worth 100,000 yen ($673) each to 15 lawmakers of his party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), before having dinner with them.
Ishiba said that the handout did not violate a political fund law, while a Japanese media reported that all lawmakers did return their gift vouchers. However, the damage was already done. Ishiba’s approval rating on Asahi newspaper’s poll dropped 14 percentage points to 26% compared to the survey in February.
Besides Asahi, polls from the Yomiuri newspaper and the Mainichi newspaper also showed a record low on the public approval rate on Ishiba’s cabinet.
This low rating could affect the Japanese House of Councillors (upper house) election this July. Moreover, this is also a time when Japan has to face the effect of the escalating trade war waged by the US President Donald Trump.
