Ishiba cabinet support rate flat at 35%; 84% concerned over U.S. tariffs

The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's cabinet stands at 35.7 percent, little changed from 36.5 percent last month, amid economic uncertainties, with most respondents fretting over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff plan, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.

The weekend telephone survey found 84.3 percent of the respondents were either "concerned" or "somewhat concerned" over the impact of U.S. tariffs on the Japanese economy.

The disapproval rating for Ishiba's cabinet rose to 49.2 percent from 43.1 percent in December.

Canada and Mexico are the likely targets of Trump's first round of tariffs, with the president saying on inauguration day last week that he was considering imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from both countries from Feb 1.

The move would inevitably impact the auto industry as major Japanese automakers have production bases in both countries and export vehicles to the U.S. market. Trump has also said he was studying tariffs of 10 percent on imports from China from Feb 1.

Meanwhile, according to the poll, 59.4 percent of respondents were in favor of allowing married couples to use different surnames, a highly debated topic in parliamentary sessions, while 32.7 percent were opposed the idea.

Support for separate surnames fell from 67.0 in an October survey after a proposal came out within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to enable women to use maiden names more.

When asked how much the tax-free annual income threshold should be raised from the current 1.03 million yen, the most common response, at 36.4 percent, was to increase it to 1.78 million yen.

The figure is in line with a proposal from the Democratic Party for the People, an opposition party whose support the ruling coalition is courting for its minority government.

The second most popular choice, supported by 27.8 percent of respondents, was an increase to 1.5 million yen, while 21.1 percent favored the plan proposed by the LDP, its junior coalition partner Komeito, and the government, which sets the threshold at 1.23 million yen.

Some 26.0 percent said they would support the LDP for the proportional representation section of an upper house election in the summer, while 14.9 percent expressed support for the DPP, 12.9 percent for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and 5.8 percent for the Japan Innovation Party.

Among parties overall, the poll showed support was at 29.6 percent for the LDP, 10.7 percent for the CDPJ, 5.4 percent for the JIP, 14.4 percent for the DPP, 4.4 percent for Komeito.

As for independents, 19.3 percent said they had "no party to support."

The nationwide survey, conducted for two days through Sunday, called 490 randomly selected households with eligible voters and 3,174 mobile phone numbers.

It yielded responses from 429 household members and 635 mobile phone users. Some areas in Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan affected by a powerful earthquake in January last year were excluded.