Support rate for Suga’s Cabinet falls after one month in office

Tokyo, Japan | XINHUA |   The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Cabinet dropped from last month when Suga took office after his predecessor Shinzo Abe stepped down for health reasons, a nationwide poll showed on Monday.

According to the survey conducted by Japan’s public broadcaster NHK between Friday and Sunday of people aged 18 or older, the approval rating for Suga’s Cabinet stood at 55 percent, 7 points less than the previous survey, while the disapproval rate rose 7 points to 20 percent.

Of those who support Suga’s Cabinet, 26 percent said the administration “seems better than other alternatives,” while 24 percent said they trust Suga.

Of those who disapprove the Cabinet, 32 percent said they don’t trust Suga, while 31 percent said they don’t expect much from the Cabinet’s policies, NHK’s poll showed.

As regards the COVID-19 outbreak, 32 percent said they are very concerned that they or their family members may get infected with the coronavirus, while 47 percent said they are concerned to some extent. Meanwhile, 15 percent said they are not so concerned, and 3 percent said they are not concerned at all.

When asked about how they feel about the government’s handling of the outbreak so far, 5 percent said they rate it highly, while 49 percent said they had a rather positive view of it. Meanwhile, 34 percent said they don’t rate it highly, while 6 percent said they don’t have a positive view of it at all.

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XINHUA