Ruling LDP leads in polls ahead of July 10 council elections

A Kyodo News survey showed that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is in the lead with the highest support rate ahead of the July 10 House of Councillors election.

In the nationwide telephone survey conducted from Sunday to Tuesday, 28.3 percent of respondents said they will vote for the LDP led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida when casting ballots under proportional representation, up 1 point from the previous poll conducted June 18 to 19.

The main opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, was second at 8.2 percent, up 1.2 points. Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the LDP, was up 1 point, and the Japan Innovation Party at 6.1 percent, down 1.6 points.

Voters will cast two ballots - one will be to choose electoral district representatives and one under proportional representation. In the election for the upper house, where the LDP and Komeito currently have a majority, 125 of the 248 seats will be contested.

79.8 percent said the Kishida government has not taken adequate measures to curb rising living costs, while 15.3 percent said its measures were adequate.

Japan is trying to pull the economy out of the COVID 19 economic fallout, but challenges such as rising commodity prices exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict and weak yen are weighing on the world's third largest economy.

In the survey, 36.3 percent said the defense budget should be maintained at its current level, up 4.8 points from the previous poll.

Those who supported raising the defense budget to 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product fell 3.1 points to 34.1 percent.

The budget has been limited to around 1 percent of GDP, because of the country's defense-oriented policy under the pacifist constitution.

The LDP wants to lift the defense budget due to China's growing military assertiveness and North Korea's missile and nuclear programs.

Respondents were split on whether the Constitution should be revised under Kishida's leadership, with 44.8 percent favoring and 44.7 percent opposing it.

The approval rating for the Kishida Cabinet increased by 0.1 point from the previous poll to 57.7 percent, while the disapproval rating increased by 1.8 points to 35.8 percent.

The survey reached 620 randomly selected households with eligible voters on landline phones and 2,210 mobile phone users, receiving 505 and 742 responses.