TOKYO: The rating of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has dropped by 15 percentage points month-on-month to 41 per cent in June, reported Sputnik based on a poll released on Monday by Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun.
The decrease marks the biggest decline since the establishment of Kishida’s cabinet in 2021, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, the number of those expressing distrust in the Japanese government has increased by 11 percentage points to 44 per cent in June, the survey showed.
The distrust is presumably caused by the government’s measures aimed at replacing paper insurance policies with plastic electronic identification cards intended for serving as a document containing data on medical and social insurance, pension provision and tax data. A wave of errors and failures during the registration process caused a series of scandals across Japan, the report said.
Moreover, 55 per cent of those surveyed expressed disapproval of the government’s plans to boost the birth rate in the country by covering the cost of childbirth through health insurance starting in fiscal year 2026, while only 37 per cent were satisfied with the measures. The Japanese government did not specify the sources of funding for this reform.
The poll was conducted among 1,018 Japanese citizens aged 18 and over from June 23-25 via phone interview.
To increase the birth rate in Japan, the government intends to disregard the upper household income threshold when allocating child allowances.
Monthly child allowances will be increased to 30,000 yen for the third and subsequent children in the family. The payments will also be made until the end of the fiscal year (March 31 in Japan) when the child turns 18.
These measures are expected to go into effect in October 2024. – BERNAMA-SPUTNIK
