The approval rating for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet rose slightly to 37.6%, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday, even though he continues to deal with public dissatisfaction over accelerating inflation and criticism over his handling of issues related to the controversial Unification Church.
The approval rating was up from 35.0% in the previous poll conducted earlier this month, while the disapproval rating edged down 3.5 percentage points to 44.8%, according to the two-day nationwide telephone survey conducted from Saturday.
Despite the slight rise in approval, numbers still fell below the 40.2% and 54.1% polled in September and August, respectively.