By Leika Kihara<\/p>\n
TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) – The approval rating of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration slumped in July to the lowest level since she took office \u200clast year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, a sign that rising living costs \u200cwere hitting her popularity.<\/p>\n
The sliding popularity adds to headaches for Takaichi, who has seen her expansionary fiscal and monetary \u200bpolicy bias cause a spike in bond yields and a slump in yen to four-decade lows.<\/p>\n
Such market pressures and opposition even from within her own ruling party have delayed the government’s decision on whether and when to cut an 8% levy on food sales – a pledge Takaichi made to \u200ccushion the blow from rising living \u2060costs.<\/p>\n
In a poll conducted between July 24 and 26, the approval rating for Takaichi’s administration fell to 57%, down from 69% in June and the \u2060first time it has dropped below 60% since she took office, Yomiuri said.<\/p>\n
The percentage that disapproved of her administration rose to 34% from 21% in June, the newspaper said.<\/p>\n
Those polled who disapproved of her \u200badministration’s \u200befforts to combat the rising costs of living rose \u200bto 71%, up from 56%, it \u200csaid.<\/p>\n
Other recent media polls have also seen Takaichi’s approval ratings slide. Kyodo news agency reported on Friday Takaichi may reshuffle her cabinet in August or September.<\/p>\n
“Her approval ratings remain high compared to past administrations so it’s not as if Takaichi’s political grounding is shaking,” said Kenji Yamamoto, chief market economist at Daiwa Securities.<\/p>\n
“But it’s also true the enormous political capital she gained from \u200cthe lower house election victory is gradually diminishing,” he \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n
The focus now would be on what message Takaichi sends \u200bthrough the cabinet reshuffle on the \u200bdirection of her reflationist policies, he added.<\/p>\n
The Bank of Japan raised interest rates \u200cto a 31-year high of 1% in \u200bJune, though real borrowing \u200bcosts remain negative with inflation hovering around its 2% target for nearly four years.<\/p>\n
Government fuel subsidies helped keep core consumer inflation below the BOJ’s 2% target for a fifth \u200bstraight month in June. But \u200canalysts expect core inflation to climb back above 2% later this year, as the \u200brecent surge in producer prices filters through to the broader economy.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Leika \u200bKihara; Editing by Tom Hogue and Stephen Coates)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Leika Kihara TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) – The approval rating of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17371,41571,41572,8,2417,358,41573],"class_list":["post-64287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-administration","tag-approval-rating","tag-approval-ratings","tag-japan","tag-japanese-prime-minister","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-yomiuri-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}