Approval Ratings Largely Level for Takaichi Following Limited Impact of September Cabinet Reshuffle

Mixed Views on Unchanged Cabinet Members

With the September 2026 results in for all of Japan’s eight major media organizations’ opinion polls, a picture has emerged of a largely neutral, but still basically positive—with approval ratings ranging from the 44% to 62% range—take on Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae.

Takaichi reshuffled her cabinet on September 17. Among the three surveys implemented before this change, those by Sankei Shimbun and NHK showed her support ratings remaining largely flat compared to the previous month, while Jiji Press recorded a 4.3-point drop to 44.1%—a fourth consecutive monthly decline, bringing the figure to a new low since the October 2025 inauguration of her administration.

Five media firms carried out their surveys after the reshuffle. Here the results trended more positively, with Kyōdō News and the Yomiuri Shimbun both seeing increases of over 3 points from August, and the Mainichi Shimbun poll marking a 4-point rise to 45%. This was the first time in three months for the Mainichi approval rate to surpass the disapproval rate. In both the Yomiuri and Kyōdō polls, those positively rating the Cabinet reshuffle outnumbered those who disapproved of it.

The Nikkei survey turned in similar numbers compared to August, with approval at 62%, while the approval rating in the Asahi Shimbun poll fell by 2 points month on month.

In its commentary on the survey results, the Yomiuri pointed out the positive response to factors including the retention of key cabinet ministers in Takaichi’s reshuffle. Kyōdō, meanwhile, had a different take in its analysis of the post-reshuffle polls from various outlets, noting that Takaichi had failed to present a fresh image by leaving many key ministers in their posts, thereby achieving “only a limited boost to public approval for the administration.”

Harsh Takes on Scandal-Linked Pols?

One consistent finding across all the polls was the negative views respondents had on Takaichi’s selection of lawmakers for cabinet posts and key Liberal Democratic Party positions despite their failure to accurately file reports on their sources of political funding.

This negative trend had already been apparent in polls taken before the cabinet reshuffle. In the Jiji survey, for instance, 68.6% of respondents opposed appointing lawmakers involved in the unreported-funds issue to cabinet or party leadership posts, and the Sankei poll found fully 71.6% opposed to ministerial appointments for them.

The surveys implemented after the reshuffle reported similar responses, with 66.6% of respondents in the Kyōdō poll and 64% in the Nikkei poll describing these appointments as “inappropriate,” and a significant majority describing the situation as “a problem” in the Asahi (68%) and Mainichi (61%) survey results.

October 2026 marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of Takaichi’s administration in 2025. In its survey coverage, Kyōdō noted that the public “continues to hope strongly for progress on the economic policy front, and whether the reshuffled Takaichi cabinet can deliver results will steer its approval ratings going forward.”

(Originally published in Japanese on October 5, 2026. Banner photo: Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, at center, with members of her reshuffled cabinet on September 17, 2026. © Jiji.)