With his approval rating in free fall, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is struggling to boost economic growth and recover from major political scandals. If Kishida wants to regain the public’s trust, he must break with the ruling party’s gerontocracy and modernize Japan’s government bureaucracy.
TOKYO – No one could have foreseen that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s popularity would nosedive so soon after the Liberal Democratic Party triumphed in July’s election to the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. Until recently, Kishida’s government received consistently high approval ratings. But the LDP’s links to a controversial religious group, along with the costly state funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, have shaken Kishida’s political base, endangering the country’s fragile economic recovery.
TOKYO – No one could have foreseen that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s popularity would nosedive so soon after the Liberal Democratic Party triumphed in July’s election to the Upper House of the Japanese Diet. Until recently, Kishida’s government received consistently high approval ratings. But the LDP’s links to a controversial religious group, along with the costly state funeral of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, have shaken Kishida’s political base, endangering the country’s fragile economic recovery.