Approval rating for newly launched Kishida Cabinet at 55%

The approval rating for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s newly launched Cabinet stands at 55.7%, a Kyodo News survey showed Tuesday, suggesting the public has mixed feelings on the new leader heading into a general election scheduled for the end of this month.

The result compares with an approval rating of 66.4% for the Cabinet of the previous prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, upon its formation in September last year.

Regarding Kishida’s economic policies — he has promised to implement a “new capitalism” that boosts growth and redistributes the fruits of that success to the middle class — 46.6% of respondents said they are hopeful while 46.9% said they are not.

The disapproval rating for Kishida’s Cabinet stood at 23.7%, compared with 16.2% for Suga’s Cabinet at its inception.

The nationwide telephone survey was conducted over two days after Kishida was elected prime minister by both chambers of the Diet on Monday.

Approval ratings tend to be high at the start of a Cabinet as the public has high expectations for the new lineup.

Suga eventually saw his Cabinet’s figure fall to 31.8% amid criticism of the government’s COVID-19 response, leading him to resign after just over a year in office.

In the latest survey, 69.7% of respondents said they want a change from the policies of Suga and his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister who served from 2012 to 2020.

A separate poll Tuesday by the Mainichi newspaper put support for Kishida at 49% — the lowest for a new leader in 13 years and an ominous sign with the looming election.

The Mainichi survey found support plumbed depths for an incoming leader not seen since Taro Aso scored 45% when he took over as prime minister amid the financial crisis in 2008. Aso served less than a year and his long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party was then ousted from power.

Asked whether they had positive expectations for Kishida’s Cabinet, 51% of respondents said they did not, while 21% said they did, the Mainichi survey showed. More than half of respondents said they didn’t approve of the appointment of Akira Amari, a member of Aso’s faction who is also seen as a close confidant of Abe, as the LDP’s No. 2.

Kishida kicked off his first full day as prime minister on Tuesday, holding talks with foreign leaders, a day after taking office and forming his Cabinet to meet a number of challenges, including reviving an economy battered by COVID-19.

“I have a sense of tension like the one I feel just after the ‘play ball’ announcement in baseball,” Kishida told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office after holding a teleconference with U.S. President Joe Biden.

“I would like to speedily respond to various challenges,” he said.

In the talks with Biden and separate discussions with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison later in the morning, Kishida agreed with the two leaders to strengthen ties and work together to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Kishida’s Cabinet members held their first news conferences at their respective offices, breaking from a…