Approval rates for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration have declined in two of three recent media polls amid concerns over rising prices and worries about the availability of crude oil-derived naphtha due to the conflict in the Middle East.All three polls, however, showed that the prime minister, who has been in office for seven months and led the Liberal Democratic Party to a two-thirds majority in the Lower House election in February, remains highly popular overall.In the late May polls, Takaichi’s support rate ranged between 50% and 66%, a drop of up to 3 percentage points compared with a month earlier.