A year after Sanae Takaichi became Japan's first female prime minister, her cabinet's support has fallen 20 points to 45%, and the slide has been sharpest among the young voters who once drove her early popularity.
The Takaichi cabinet took office on October 21 and began at 65%. Support held at 65% in November 2025 and rose to 67% that December, cementing an image of a cabinet carried by unusually high approval.
In October this year, the first anniversary month, support stood at 45%. The disapproval rate was 41%, so the cabinet still holds a net positive, but the year has cost it a fifth of its starting strength.
A generational reversal
At the outset, support ran highest among the young and fell steadily with age. Voters 18 to 29 gave the cabinet 76%, those in their 30s 70%, and the 40s and 50s 69% and 68%.
Support was 65% among voters in their 60s and 53% among those 70 and older. Every age group approved by a wide margin over its disapproval, and even the lowest, the over-70s, was 18 points above a 35% disapproval rate.
A year on, the gradient has flattened. Voters 18 to 29 now give 48%, the 30s and 40s 47%, the 50s 49% and the 60s 47%, leaving the groups up to the 60s clustered within two points of one another.
Those 70 and older sit at 38%, the lowest of any group. Among them, disapproval now outruns approval.
Expectations unmet
The cabinet began with high public hopes. In the October 2025 survey, 61% said they expected something from Takaichi, against 18% who did not.
Among the reasons volunteered for expecting something, the first was simply that she was Japan's first female prime minister.
The four-part series reads the cabinet's first year through opinion polls. The fourth installment turns to the shift from first-female-premier fever to a support structure in which men approve more than women.