Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost a special election over the weekend and barely scraped out a victory in another, in a fresh setback for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, whose public support has sagged to its lowest since he took office.
The LDP lost an upper house seat on the island of Shikoku to Hajime Hirota of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, according to exit polling by public broadcaster NHK and other media outlets.
The LDP’s Yozo Kaneko, the son of a former agriculture minister, narrowly won a lower house seat in the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki. Both constituencies were previously held by the ruling party.
The two votes came days after Kishida ordered ruling party executives to consider introducing temporary income tax cuts to help the public deal with rising prices. He is expected to underscore that message in a policy speech to parliament later in the day.
While Kishida doesn’t need to hold a general election until 2025, any further signs of weakness could mean he faces difficulties controlling the powerful factions within his party, and his job as LDP leader could be under threat in a vote less than a year away.
See: Japan’s Kishida Orders Temporary Tax Cuts Ahead of By-Elections
Support for Kishida’s cabinet slumped to 29% from 37% in September in a poll carried out by the Ashia newspaper Oct. 14-15, marking the lowest level since he took office two years ago.
Surveys show voters are dissatisfied with steps he’s taken to shield them from inflation. Those measures include expanding and extending gasoline subsidies to the end of the year.
On Friday, Kishida announced he’d instructed ruling party executives to consider introducing temporary tax cuts to “return something to the people” after an increase in tax revenues.
Japan reported Friday that the pace of inflation slid below 3% in September for the first time in more than a year. Even with the easing price pressure, the Bank of Japan will probably revise higher its forecasts for consumer inflation for this year and next when board members gather at the end of the month.
More: Japan Inflation Slows Below 3% in Line With BOJ Price View
