Tuesday’s Sankei reported that its joint opinion poll with FNN conducted on June 18 and 19 found that public support for the Kishida Cabinet was at 63.7%. The paper said although the approval rating dropped 5.2 points from last month, it remained above 60% for nine consecutive months since the launch of the Cabinet. The paper said the majority of respondents gave high marks to key policies of the Kishida government, including measures against high prices, which is likely to be one of the main topics in the Upper House election. According to the daily, 51.6% welcomed the Kishida Cabinet’s measures against high prices, while 42.7% did not. On PM Kishida’s responses toward Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 63.2% expressed approval. As for the defense budget, 51.7% said the GOJ should increase it, 11.5% said the GOJ should increase it by issuing more bonds, and 9.5% said the GOJ should increase it through tax hikes. A quarter of respondents said the defense budget should not be increased. In addition, 30.1% said they would vote for the LDP when casting ballots for proportional representation seats in the Upper House election, followed by the CDPJ at 5.3%, Komeito at 5%, and Japan Innovation Party at 4.9%.