Japan PM Takaichi's Cabinet support rate dips to 55.8%, lowest since launch

TOKYO - The approval rate for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet slipped to 55.8 percent, the lowest point since she took office last October, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday, amid lingering uncertainty in the resource-poor country over the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict.

In the weekend telephone survey, which took place after the United States and Iran reached a preliminary peace deal under which Tehran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, 54.7 percent of respondents saw no need to send the Japanese Self-Defense Forces to the key waterway to help ensure the safe passage of commercial vessels, while 36.6 percent thought otherwise.