Alarm is growing among the government and the ruling parties as the approval rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet has gradually fallen.
Abe's remarks in the Diet and his handling of the spread of the coronavirus in Japan seem to have contributed to the decline in support. Opposition parties are continuing to hound the Cabinet.
On Monday, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai told reporters: "We will handle issues with a greater sense of urgency. We can recover [from the decline in support] through our efforts." Nikai stressed the need for the government and ruling parties to work together to tackle the challenges they face.
According to a nationwide opinion poll conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun from Friday to Sunday, 47% of the respondents supported Abe's Cabinet, down five percentage points from the 52% seen in the previous survey in January. Asked about the government's handling of the coronavirus, 52% said they did not think well of its performance.
The government is scrambling to regain public support through such measures as announcing plans to expand medical and consultation services, and having the prime minister take the initiative in dealing with problems related to the virus.
LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida told reporters Monday, "We have to firmly implement each measure."
Some LDP members are also criticizing the government's performance, with one veteran lawmaker saying, "The government may have made light of the issue, thinking that it wasn't serious."
Abe's repeated provocative remarks to opposition parties in the Diet are also believed to be a cause of the decline in his approval rating. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Monday, "We will humbly accept the poll's results and continue working while listening to the voice of the people."
Tetsuro Fukuyama, the secretary general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters at the Diet building on the same day, "The public was disgusted and angered by the government's failure to fulfill its responsibility to explain not only the issue of the cherry blossom viewing party but also the other scandals."
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