The disapproval rate for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is at 62 percent, a record high for a newly launched Cabinet, with support at 27 percent, a Kyodo News poll showed Thursday.
The nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 people was undertaken Wednesday, the day after the new Cabinet was launched.
Only 27 percent of the respondents said they support continuation of the coalition — the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and New Conservative Party. On the other hand, 65 percent said they are against the idea.
As to the future course of Japanese politics, 49 percent said they are counting on the Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force, to show the way, compared to 40 percent who said they expect the LDP to remain at the helm.
Likewise, when asked about which party they support, 27 percent cited the DPJ, up 17 percentage points from the previous survey in April and approaching the ratio of those supporting the LDP, which came to 29 percent, down by 10 percentage points.
Support for the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party came to 6 percent, followed by 5 percent for New Komeito and the Japanese Communist Party, while support for New Conservative Party accounted for less than 1 percent.
The latest survey also found 17 percent of the respondents support no specific parties, compared to 31 percent in the previous survey.
As a reason against supporting the new Cabinet, many said Mori’s qualifications are suspect.
Of those who turned their thumbs down to the new Cabinet, 26 percent pointed to Mori’s lack of leadership, while 20 percent said they cannot trust the prime minister.
As to polices they expect from the new Cabinet, 62 percent of the respondents called for measures to ensure economic recovery and secure employment, while 51 percent urged the government to tackle social security issues, such as a nursing care system for the elderly and pension system reforms.
Education reform and fiscal reform came in third place with 21 percent of the respondents calling for measures to be adopted in the respective two fields.
In the previous survey, shortly after the launch of Mori’s first Cabinet in April, 13 percent of the respondent cited fiscal reform as a priority for the government. The issue, however, gathered greater interest this time, probably because the massive amount of the government’s accumulated long-term debt — a result of continued public works spending — became a point of debate before the general elections.
Of the 1,000 respondents, 485 were men and 515 women.