First Approval Ratings For Kishida Cabinet Doing The Rounds

The support rate for Fumio Kishida's newly formed Cabinet stands at 59%, according to a Nikkei/TV Tokyo opinion poll conducted on October 4/5. The figure tops the final approval rating of the Suga Cabinet by 21pp but is well below the initial ratings of most previous Cabinets, including those led by Abe and Suga. The Nikkei said that it is the third-lowest approval rating for a freshly inaugurated Cabinet since they adopted their current polling methodology in 2002.

• Survey results circulated by Kyodo on Tuesday showed that the approval rating for the Kishida Cabinet stands at 55.7%, with the public having mixed feelings towards the new leader. The most frequently chosen reason for supporting the new administration was that "there is no other good candidate."
• In a poll conducted by Mainichi/Social Survey Research Centre, the approval rating for the new administration registered at 49%, falling short of the 50% threshold and trailing that of the Suga Cabinet recorded when Kishida's predecessor took office. Mainichi noted that "the latest approval rate [for a newly formed Cabinet] was the second lowest in the last 20 years," but flagged difficulties around comparability with past results due to changes in polling methods.