The Japanese government is fighting the record-breaking approval rating as consumers whine outraged at the price of rice in the weeks leading up to the key national elections.

Attempts to lower the prices of Japanese staple foods have little impact, prompting a crisis of calling for a reduction in the consumption tax (sales) tax to alleviate the cost of living.

A new poll by Kyodo News Agency found that consumers blame Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's government on rising financial pressures in households.

Kyodo said that according to the poll, the approval rating of Ishiba's cabinet position was 27.4%, the lowest since taking office last October, and fell more than 5 percentage points in the past month.

So far, the Ishiba-ruled Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has ruled out a 10% excise tax, which is expected to be the focus of the House of Lords elections in July.

Ibon is already under pressure after the KMT and its junior coalition partners lost their majority in the House of Commons last fall. The huge losses in the House of Lords will only increase calls from party opponents so that he can go.

The poll found that almost three-quarters of respondents said they should be taxed on a wide range of goods and services “for food only” and “for all products” or taxes that are completely abolished.

More worrying is that more than 87% of respondents said the government’s efforts to curb rice prices were “insufficient”, while more than 74% said they did not expect ongoing U.S.-Japan tariff negotiations (including negotiations on U.S. imports of rice and other food imports – in favor of Japan.

Earlier this year, the Ishiba government took unusual steps to dip it into its huge rice reserves. In March, it began releasing stored rice in an attempt to arrest price increases, which were blamed on a variety of factors, including a tourism boom, partial demand for distribution bottlenecks, and hoarding wholesalers and distributors in the hopes of further shortages.

However, this move is usually preserved due to shortages caused by natural disasters and crop failures, but has no ideal results, while household rice prices have only slightly declined.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the price of rice sold in supermarkets averaged 4,214 yen ($29) of 5 kg from May to May 4. This is cheaper than the record-high price a week ago on the 18th, but the same price was still twice the price last year.

Media reports said in response that the government said last week that it doubled its supply of rice, with an additional 300,000 tons tonnes being released in the three months to July. This is the top of 300,000 tons that have been released from emergency stocks since March. Additionally, some rice will bypass wholesalers in order to get to the store faster.

The increasing crisis of rice has forced more Japanese restaurants and consumers to switch to cheaper imports. In April, Japan imported Korean rice for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Last week, supermarket chain Aeon said it will start selling Calrose rice produced in the United States starting early next month. A 4kg bag costs about 10% less than Japanese rice.