Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi speaks to reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office, in Tokyo, Japan, 25 June 2026. Photo by JIJI PRESS / EPA
July 20 (Asia Today) — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s approval ratings fell in two major media polls conducted immediately after Parliament approved revisions to the Imperial House Law.
The legislation maintained the principle that only men descended through the male line may succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Both polls also found that negative views of the revisions outweighed positive assessments.
The surveys alone, however, do not establish that the legislation directly caused the decline in support for Takaichi’s Cabinet.
A Mainichi Shimbun poll conducted Saturday and Sunday placed the Cabinet’s approval rating at 41%, down 10 percentage points from 51% in June.
The rating fell below 50% for the first time since Takaichi’s Cabinet took office in October. Its disapproval rating reached 44%, surpassing approval for the first time.
Mainichi said the government and the governing coalition passed the legislation to address the declining number of imperial family members. Public support and understanding remained limited, however, for preserving succession rules that restrict eligibility to men descended through the paternal line.
An Asahi Shimbun poll conducted during the same period found that Cabinet approval fell 7 points, from 60% in June to 53%.
The approval rating had remained above 60% since the Cabinet’s launch but dropped into the 50% range for the first time. Disapproval increased 8 points, from 27% to 35%.
The shift was particularly pronounced among voters who support no political party. Among those voters, 36% approved of the Cabinet and 42% disapproved.
It was the first time since the Takaichi Cabinet took office that disapproval exceeded approval among unaffiliated voters.
Support among voters who back the governing Liberal Democratic Party remained high at 87%. The results indicated that Takaichi retained support from the party’s core voters while losing ground among people without a party affiliation.
Revised imperial law receives negative reviews
The government and governing parties secured parliamentary passage of the revised Imperial House Law on Friday to address the shrinking number of imperial family members.
The legislation allows female members of the imperial family to retain their royal status after marrying commoners. It also permits male-line descendants of former imperial branches to be adopted into the current imperial family.
Eligibility to inherit the throne, however, remains limited to male descendants in the paternal line.
In the Mainichi survey, 19% of respondents said they viewed the revisions positively while 45% said they did not.
The Asahi poll found that 24% believed the legislation had gained public understanding. Sixty percent said it had not.
The results suggest that the government’s approach to preserving the size of the imperial family failed to generate broad public support, particularly because it excluded the possibility of a woman ascending the throne.
The two polls used different methodologies and groups of respondents, meaning their approval ratings cannot be compared directly.
Both, however, showed the same broad pattern: falling Cabinet approval, rising disapproval, weakening support among unaffiliated voters and widespread dissatisfaction with the revised imperial law.
The Takaichi government now faces the challenge of building greater public understanding after completing the changes to Japan’s imperial system.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260720010006815
