Support for Kishida Cabinet hits new low of 16.9%: Jiji poll

Public support for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet fell to 16.9% in February, marking a new record low for his administration since its start in October 2021, a Jiji Press opinion poll showed Thursday.

The figure is also the lowest for a Liberal Democratic Party-led administration since the party returned to power in December 2012.

The approval rate dropped 1.7 percentage points from January, while the disapproval rate climbed 6.4 percentage points to 60.4%. This is the first time since May 2020 — when Shinzo Abe was prime minister — that the disapproval rate for an administration has exceeded 60%.