Mixed Messages for Takaichi Sanae in June Polls: Support Remains High, but Wavers

Signs of Slipping?

The monthly opinion polls carried out in early June 2026 to gauge political sentiment among the Japanese public showed slightly slipping support for Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae. A majority of respondents still expressed approval for her administration, but there were some slips from May to June: The approval rating fell 0.6 points to 60.1% in the NHK poll, and in two of the surveys the Takaichi government marked its lowest numbers yet, falling 5.1 points to 54.3% in the Jiji Press poll and by 2.7 points to 65.3% in the Sankei Shimbun poll.

In its coverage accompanying the poll results, Jiji noted one possible reason for the falling support levels: the impact of recently increased media coverage of social media behavior by Takaichi’s supporters ahead of the October 2025 election for the presidency of the Liberal Democratic Party, when they allegedly posted defamatory video content about other candidates online. The Jiji survey asked about the prime minister’s explanations for this defamation, finding that fully 40.4% of respondents felt the excuses she gave were “unacceptable.”

Not All Bad News

The surveys carried out in the second half of June tell a slightly rosier story for Takaichi, though. The Yomiuri Shimbun poll saw her approval rating climb by 5 percentage points from May to 69% and the Nikkei poll had her up 2 points to 68%; she registered a 1% uptick in the Mainichi Shimbun poll to 51% approval, and remained steady at 60% in the Asahi Shimbun poll.

Yomiuri analysis accompanying its poll results noted that respondents had referred positively to successful talks between the ruling and opposition parties on a proposal to temporarily lower the consumption tax rate on food products, as well as the impact of the declaration ending hostilities between the United States and Iran.

Also in the second half of June, though, the Kyōdō News survey marked a 5.5-point drop in Takaichi’s approval rate, to 55.8%—the lowest figure in that company’s polling since the launch of her administration in October last year. There were thus mixed messages for the administrations in the polls in the latter half of the month, making it hard to describe this as a rebound across the board in Takaichi’s popularity.

The Jiji polling trend over time shows that November 2025, just after Takaichi became prime minister, was the highwater mark for her approval rate, when it reached 63.8%; it has fallen by 9.5 points in the seven months since then. This still leaves it at a level around twice the rate for her predecessor, Ishiba Shigeru, which languished in the 20%–30% range throughout his time in office. Reasons given by Jiji poll respondents for their support include Takaichi’s “leadership qualities,” at 23.0% of all survey participants; the top reason given for disapproval, meanwhile, was an “inability to trust the prime minister” at 9.2%.

(Originally published in Japanese on July 3, 2026. Banner photo: From right, Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae poses at the G7 summit in Evian, France, on June 16, with French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenyan President William Ruto, and US President Donald Trump. Pool photo; © Jiji.)