Support for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration fell to 49.1%, its lowest since she took office in October 2025, as she defended fiscal management amid scrutiny of the yen and bond markets, Kyodo reported.
Kyodo said the poll may have captured disapproval of Takaichi’s response to Kazuo Yana’s resignation as farm minister. Yana left the post Oct. 14 after remarks about reducing road funds for municipalities that had not supported him. In the survey, 57.7% said the decision to replace him came “too late,” while 81.5% said his resignation was “natural.”
Speaking in Parliament on Oct. 19, Takaichi rejected the idea that she was responsible for a weak yen or high interest rates, Bloomberg reported. “I categorically reject those claims,” she said. Takaichi said her administration would seek stronger growth while maintaining fiscal sustainability, and that the budget for the coming fiscal year would set the volume of Japanese government bonds to be issued.
Bloomberg reported the government was working to ease market concerns about its public finances. Drafts of an economic policy blueprint earlier in 2026 heightened worries about a shift toward looser fiscal policy, alongside a weaker yen and higher long-term bond yields, the outlet reported.
The debate also involves how new spending would be financed. Bloomberg said investors were focused on how officials would pay for a planned sales-tax cut on food and higher defense spending without adding to Japan’s debt burden. In September, Growth Strategy Minister Minoru Kiuchi said Japan no longer needed aggressive monetary easing and fiscal spending to support a reflationary policy. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama has also said Takaichi is not a reflationist, a label long associated with the prime minister, Bloomberg reported.
Bank of Japan (BOJ) Gov. Kazuo Ueda said underlying inflation was close to the central bank’s 2% target, and long-term yields could rise if investors judged the BOJ was not increasing its benchmark rate at a suitable pace, Bloomberg reported.
