Those who have a high opinion of the latest reshuffle of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet accounted for 38 percent of respondents to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey, surpassed by those who do not at 45 percent. The survey was conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday in response to Tuesday's inauguration of the fourth reshuffled Cabinet.
The formation of the latest Cabinet was characterized by preserving the core of the preceding Cabinet while also appointing 12 first-timers to ministerial posts, the largest number ever in an Abe cabinet.
Regarding Abe's decision to retain Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, 57 percent of respondents said they disapprove of the decision, surpassing the 36 percent who expressed approval. The appointment of Satsuki Katayama -- the only female minister in the new Cabinet -- to regional revitalization minister, was supported by 51 percent of the people surveyed, while 35 percent did not support it.
A lawmaker who supported the former secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, Shigeru Ishiba, who fought fiercely with Abe in the LDP leadership race, was also chosen as a member of the new Cabinet. Regarding this decision by Abe, 71 percent of respondents expressed a favorable view, surpassing the 19 percent who did not.
Akira Amari took up the post of chairman of the Election Strategy Committee in the LDP's revamped leadership team. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they support the decision, while 41 percent disapproved of it.
The approval rating for the prime minister's Cabinet itself stood at 50 percent in the latest survey, unchanged from the previous survey conducted from Sept. 21 to Sept. 23, immediately after the LDP presidential election. His disapproval rating was 39 percent, down from 41 percent in the previous survey.
By party, 43 percent supported the LDP, up slightly from 40 percent, while the support rating for the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan was 5 percent, down from 6 percent, and that for Komeito was 3 percent, down from 4 percent. Two percent of respondents said they support the Japanese Communist Party. Forty-two percent, down from 45 percent in the previous survey, said they do not support any particular party.
In the recent Okinawa gubernatorial election, Denny Tamaki won the race by opposing the central government's plans to build a new military base in the Henoko coastal area of Nago in the prefecture, in order to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station from Ginowan in the prefecture. When asked about the election result, 63 percent said they approve, while 24 percent said they do not.
The survey was conducted by polling 973 households on landlines and 1,258 mobile phone users who were sampled with a random digit dialing method. All respondents were eligible voters aged 18 or older. Of them, 1,121 people -- 536 on landlines and 585 on mobile phones -- gave valid answers.
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