The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe slipped 1.7 points from the previous opinion poll but remains sky-high at 71.1 percent, according to a Kyodo News survey released Sunday.
The survey, conducted over the weekend, showed 62.7 percent of the respondents support Abe's announcement that Japan will enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade liberalization negotiations, while 29.5 percent voiced their opposition.
It also found that 71.8 percent believe Abe's government should continue to participate in the multilateral free-trade talks until the other TTP member states accept Japan's argument that critical farm produce should be exempted from complete tariff elimination.
Despite Abe's recent pledge to protect the country's agricultural and food industries, farmers continue to vehemently oppose joining the U.S.-led TPP, amid fears the regional trade framework would result in an influx of bargain-basement farm imports.
On Abe's economic and fiscal policies, 71.1 percent of the respondents backed his extreme monetary easing, the survey showed. Only 22.7 percent were found to oppose what has come to be dubbed "Abenomics."
On the transfer of the U.S. Futenma base in Okinawa, 55.5 percent supported the government's handling of the controversial issue, including the land reclamation application to the prefectural government. Those critical of the Abe administration's stance came to 37.6 percent, according to the survey.
The government filed the application Friday in hopes of breathing life into the long-stalled relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa Island, as per a bilateral accord with Washington.