TOKYO, Sept 19 (NNN-NHK) – The Japanese Cabinet’s public approval rating, plummeted to 29 percent, dropping below 30 percent into a “danger zone,” Japan’s newspaper Mainichi Shimbun’s latest survey showed, yesterday.
The latest opinion poll showed, support rate of the Japanese government, headed by Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, stood at 29 percent, down seven percentage points from the 36 percent in the previous survey in Aug, a record low since Kishida took office in Oct, 2021.
A public support rating below 30 percent is commonly viewed as a danger zone.
The approval rating of Japan’s main ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) also dropped six percentage points, from the previous poll, to 23 percent.
The sharp drop in the approval ratings for the Cabinet and the LDP is blamed partly on Japanese politicians’ controversial links, to the religious group of Unification Church.
Only 12 percent of respondents said they “approve of” Kishida’s response to the issue of Japanese politicians’ ties to the Unification Church, far less than the 72 percent, who said they did not.
On Sept 8, the LDP said, its in-house survey has found that 179, or nearly half of its Diet members, had some links with the church. Since the survey was based on self-reporting, most of the respondents were not convinced.
As for a state funeral for former Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, 62 percent opposed it, up nine percentage points from the previous survey, while 27 percent were in favour.
The survey was conducted by Japan’s newspaper, Mainichi Shimbun, and Japan’s Social Survey Research Centre, from Sept 17 to 18, through a combination of text messages on mobile phones and automated voice questionnaires on fixed-line phones.
A total of 642 valid responses were received from mobile phones and 422 valid responses from landlines.
The drop in the approval ratings was echoed by surveys conducted by several local media.
The latest Kyodo News survey showed yesterday that, the Japanese Cabinet’s public approval rating dropped to 40.2 percent, a new low since its launch last year.
Its latest disapproval rating in the weekend survey, a record 46.5 percent, exceeded the approval rating for the first time since Kishida took office in Oct, according to Kyodo News.– NNN-NHK
