The Cabinet's public approval rating has plummeted to 38.9 percent, with the majority of respondents opposed to the Diet's enactment of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's contentious security laws, according to the latest Kyodo News survey.
The nationwide telephone survey, conducted Saturday and Sunday, found that the support rate for Abe's Cabinet was down more than four points from the 43.2 percent logged in the previous survey in mid-August.
The poll was conducted just hours after the Diet enacted the new security laws allowing the Self-Defense Forces to play a bigger role overseas. The legislation permits Japanese troops to use force to defend allies under armed attack even when Japan is not being attacked, and expands the scope of SDF arms use in U.N. peacekeeping operations.