Support for Takaichi's Cabinet slightly lower at 59.1%, poll shows
Public support for Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet has declined 0.2 percentage point from the previous month to 59.1% in April, a monthly survey by Jiji Press showed Thursday.Takaichi, who took office last October, saw her Cabinet's approval rate hit its lowest level for the second month in a row but it remains high compared with her predecessors' Cabinets.According to the April survey, the proportion of respondents who did not support the Cabinet declined 1.1 points to 19.2%, while 21.7% said they did not know.When respondents supporting the Takaichi Cabinet were asked for their reasons, with multiple answers allowed, 28.3% cited her leadership, 20.2% said they trusted the prime minister, 16.4% said they had positive impressions of the Cabinet, and 13.5% said there were no other people fit to be prime minister.The interview survey covered 2,000 people age 18 or over across the country for four days through Monday. Valid responses were given by 58.8%.Takaichi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party remained the most popular party, backed by 25.7% of all respondents, down from 26.9%. Trailing far behind, the Democratic Party for the People came in second with 2.9%, down from 3.8%.The pair were followed by the Centrist Reform Alliance with 2.5%; the Japan Innovation Party, the LDP's coalition partner, with 2.2%; Sanseito with 2.1%; Team Mirai with 2.0%; Komeito with 1.9%; the Japanese Communist Party with 1.5%; the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan with 1.3%; the Conservative Party of Japan with 0.9%; Reiwa Shinsengumi with 0.8% and the Social Democratic Party with 0.3%.Among the respondents, 51.5% supported no particular party.Following a report by weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun on education minister Yohei Matsumoto's suspected extramarital affair, 30.6% said the prime minister should remove him from his post, while 29.8% said she should not necessarily do so.
