Japan ruling party support hit lowest since 2012 ahead of national election, NHK poll shows

TOKYO (Reuters) -The approval rate for Japan’s ruling party was down to the lowest since its return to power in 2012, a poll by public broadcaster NHK showed on Monday, ahead of Sunday’s upper house election.

The Liberal Democratic Party’s support rate fell 4.1 percentage points to 24% from a week earlier, while approval for the LDP-led administration of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stayed unchanged at 31%, the July 11-13 poll showed.

The latest poll result follows the LDP’s downtrend in recent surveys, which have suggested that Ishiba’s coalition may lose its majority in the upper house of parliament too, after losing the lower house majority last October.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Toby Chopra)