A Yomiuri poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday showed that cabinet support rose by 8 points to 65% from the previous survey conducted on June 22-23. Some 73% said they are worried that the fatal shooting of former Prime Minister Abe poses a threat to democracy in Japan, while 24% said they don’t feel that way. Some 32% said the shooting “greatly” affected the results of the Upper House election and 54% said the incident “somewhat” affected it, while 11% said the shooting had “little impact” and 2% said it had “no impact at all.” The paper speculated that the public’s anxiety about the increasingly severe security environment surrounding Japan, rising number of new COVID-cases, and fatal shooting of the former prime minister boosted their support for the administration. When asked how long they hope Prime Minister Kishida will remain in his current post, 52% said he should remain at least until September 2024 when his term as LDP president expires and 27% said they hope Kishida will remain as long as possible. Some 12% said the premier should stay for about a year, while 6% said he should step down immediately.  

Nikkei and Sankei also reported on the results of a nationwide Kyodo News poll conducted on July 11-12, in which 63.2% of respondents, up by 6.3 points from the previous survey in June, expressed approval of the Kishida Cabinet.  While the LDP and other pro-constitutional revision forces combined secured the two-thirds majority in the Upper House needed to propose constitutional amendments, 58.4% of respondents said there is no need to hurry to revise the Constitution, while 37.5% said the government should move quickly.