Japan's parliament building. [EPA]
Japan's parliament building. [EPA]

The Japanese Communist Party's secretary-general took to social media to express surprise after the party topped opposition rivals in an NHK poll with an approval rating of 3.4 percent.

According to NHK and the Sankei Shimbun, the NHK August survey released Aug. 10 showed the Japanese Communist Party at 3.4 percent — second only to the Liberal Democratic Party's 35.0 percent.

The Communist Party's support rose 1.9 percentage points from 1.5 percent in July. The Democratic Party for the People, the Constitutional Democratic Party and the Sanseito each came in at 2.8 percent, followed by Nippon Ishin no Kai at 2.6 percent, Komeito at 2.2 percent and the moderate reform coalition at 1.7 percent. The share of respondents who said they supported no party rose 2.0 percentage points from the previous month to 39.0 percent, surpassing the LDP's rating.

When the results were released, Communist Party Secretary-General Koike Akira posted on his X account: "Oh, we've become the No. 1 opposition party." Fifteen minutes later, he followed up with a sweating emoji and wrote: "It was more that we were the No. 2 party overall, rather than the top opposition party." His first post drew more than 2 million views.

At a press conference Monday, Koike said he tries "not to get carried away by any single poll result," but added, "I was happy, that much is true."

The party attributed the attention to its opposition — grounded in public opinion polling — to the ruling bloc's push to revise the Imperial House Law in a direction that would exclude the possibility of a female emperor ascending to the throne.

Political columnist Kakuya Koichi told the Nikkan Gendai: "Looking back at the 158-day special Diet session, the Communist Party was the only one that stood up to the Takaichi administration, which commands a dominant ruling bloc in the lower house."

However, a poll conducted earlier this month by the Sankei Shimbun and Fuji News Network placed the Communist Party's support at 2.5 percent, fourth among all parties.


dbsdn1110@heraldcorp.com