The approval rating for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet remained almost unchanged at 56.6%, but some of his recent COVID-19 responses drew mixed reactions in a Kyodo News survey released Sunday.

In the two-day telephone survey through Sunday, the support rate rose slightly from 55.9% in the January survey, while the disapproval rating edged up 2.2 points to 27.4%.

While 54.1% of the respondents approve of his government's overall handling of the coronavirus pandemic, down 0.3 point from January, 73.5% think the government's booster shot program is progressing slowly.