Arab News Japan

TOKYO: Following the deadly earthquake in northern Japan that killed over 200 people on New Year’s Day, the approval rating of Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio’s cabinet rose 5 percent as the public viewed the response to the quake as generally positive, a Kyodo News survey has shown.

However, 61.6 percent of the respondents do not feel that the Kishida Cabinet’s leadership is satisfactory.

The approval rating in the poll carried out on January 13 and 14 was still low at 27.3 percent, while the disapproval rating stood at 57.5 percent, down 7.9 points from the previous survey.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party fared slightly better with an approval rating of 33.3 percent, up 7.3 points from the previous poll.

Just over half of the respondents (54.6 percent) thought the government’s response to the earthquake was prompt enough. Cabinet approval ratings tend to rise when a major disaster occurs. 

However, support for the Prime Minister remained sluggish, with only 31.5 percent saying Kishida demonstrated sufficient leadership in responding to the earthquake. It took nearly two weeks for the Prime Minister to visit the disaster-hit area and speak to victims to whom he offered platitudes rather than substantive help.

“I will take the lead and do my best to help rebuild people’s lives,” he said. This kind of bland statement does not seem to have resonated well with voters.