Support rate for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet has plunged to a record low of 31.9 percent since the prime minister returned to office in December 2012, according to a Nippon News Network poll released on Sunday.
According to the news network's survey from July 7 to July 9, support rate for the prime minister's cabinet dropped to 31.9 percent, down 7.9 percentage points from a survey a month earlier, while the disapproval rate stood at 49.2 percent, up 7.4 points.
Among those supporting the cabinet, 42.2 percent said it was because they could not think of a suitable person to replace Abe as prime minister, while only 14.4 percent said it was because they trusted Abe's character.
Among those who do not support the cabinet, 33.8 percent said it was because they did not trust Abe's integrity, and 23.1 percent said they held no expectation for Abe's policies.
Regarding the allegations that Abe had used his influence to open a new department at a university run by a close friend in a government-designated special economic zone, 54.7 percent of the respondents said they were not convinced by Abe's explanations, while 19.8 percent said the opposite.
As for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's recent defeat in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election, 67.7 percent of the respondents said the election results were "reasonable," while only 15.7 percent said they had wanted the LDP to win.
Support rate for Abe's cabinet has been declining sharply recently over a series of scandals implicating the prime minister and some of his cabinet members, as well as the ruling coalition's unorthodox way of forcing through the controversial "conspiracy" legislation in the parliament.
Abe's ruling LDP suffered a historical defeat in last Sunday's Tokyo metropolitan assembly election and was replaced by Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party), a new party led by former LDP lawmaker and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, as the largest party in the metropolitan assembly.
Abe said on Sunday that during a visit to Sweden that he will "rejuvenate" his cabinet and key LDP posts in early August in an attempt to curb the decline of suport rates.
