The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stood at 55.9%, down 4.1 points from the previous survey in December, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday, as Japan grapples with recent surges in COVID-19 infections driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant.
The two-day telephone survey through Sunday found the disapproval rate was up 2.5 points to 25.2% and also showed that 89.7% plan to refrain from dining and traveling in the wake of the rapid spread of the omicron variant.
Among respondents who said they approve of the Cabinet, 17.7% said they trust the prime minister and 8.6% said they pin their hopes on the government's economic policies.