Takaichi cabinet hits record-low approval after imperial succession law bars women, allows 36th-degree male relatives

The approval rating of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae's cabinet, which had been riding high, has fallen to a record low following a revision to the Imperial House Law that excludes women from the line of succession.

An Asahi Shimbun poll conducted Saturday and Sunday — immediately after the revised law cleared the upper house of Japan's parliament on Friday — put cabinet support at 53 percent. That marks a 7-percentage-point drop from 60 percent recorded in last month's survey and is the first time the Asahi poll has shown the Takaichi cabinet's approval in the 50s since the administration took office last October.

A Mainichi Shimbun poll conducted over the same two days also recorded a historic low for the cabinet. Support fell 10 percentage points from 51 percent a month ago to 41 percent. Mainichi said the disapproval rating reached 44 percent — surpassing the approval rating for the first time since the cabinet took office.

The sharp drop is widely seen as a backlash against the Takaichi cabinet's push to revise the Imperial House Law. Asahi highlighted that among respondents who said the revision had "failed to win public understanding," cabinet support stood at only 42 percent — below the overall average — while disapproval among that group reached 49 percent, far higher than the 35 percent disapproval rate recorded across all respondents. The revision has thus emerged as a major factor driving the cabinet's falling approval.

Mainichi said the ruling party revised the Imperial House Law with the goal of increasing the number of imperial family members, but the move backfired as voters withheld their support.

The revision's decision to recognize male relatives as distant as the 36th degree as eligible successors — while excluding women entirely — appears to have triggered widespread public opposition. Emperor Naruhito has one child, Princess Aiko, but under the Imperial House Law only men can ascend to the throne. A Kyodo News poll conducted in May found that 83 percent of respondents supported allowing women to succeed to the throne. Despite that sentiment, the revised law instead provides for former imperial family members in the male line to be adopted into the imperial family as male heirs, with succession rights granted to any male children born to such adoptees.

The pool of candidates under this framework consists of distant relatives — between the 36th and 38th degree of kinship — who share a common ancestor with Emperor Naruhito from roughly 600 years ago. Critics argue the legitimacy of such a succession line is weak, and note that any discussion of female succession was never even put on the table despite public opinion to the contrary.

Further fueling public discontent is the fact that the revision, ostensibly aimed at addressing the shrinking size of the imperial family, leaves intact the existing rule that strips married female imperial family members and their families of royal status.

Particularly sharp criticism has been directed at the fact that Takaichi — Japan's first female prime minister — is aligning herself with conservative voices in politics who insist on male-line succession, media analysts say.

In the Mainichi poll, 46 percent of respondents said the Takaichi administration's approach to policy was "not respectful," compared with 38 percent who said it was — an 8-percentage-point gap. The result amounts to an indirect rebuke of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's practice of pushing through legislation on the strength of its numerical majority following a landslide victory in the lower house election.

The poll also drew sharp responses on economic policy. Only 29 percent gave a positive assessment of Takaichi's response to high prices, while nearly double that — 57 percent — gave a negative one.