TOKYO - The approval rate for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's Cabinet fell 2.1 percentage points from the previous survey to 53.7 percent, the lowest since she took office last October, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday.
The poll results come as the ruling bloc holding far more than two-thirds of the House of Representatives seats pushed through its key bills, including the revision to the Imperial House Law and new legislation to create a "second capital" as a backup for Tokyo in emergencies such as disasters, without sufficient deliberation and public understanding.
In the weekend telephone survey, 81 percent of respondents said they support allowing female emperors, even as the long-standing male-only succession system was retained in the imperial law revised in July to address the issue of the shrinking imperial family.
The revision to the law introduced two changes -- permitting the adoption of males from former imperial branch families and allowing female members to retain their imperial status after marrying commoners. Over 44 percent of respondents said the revision has gained understanding from the public, but nearly 50 percent said it has not.
After the parliamentary session was extended through Saturday amid a stalemate over key bills backed by Takaichi's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, 57.5 percent said her government handled Diet affairs in a hard-line or somewhat hard-line manner.
The second capital legislation had faced harsh backlash from the opposition camp, which argued that it was tailored only to the Osaka-based JIP, whose backing helped elect Takaichi in parliament as premier last October.
The poll showed 66.9 percent of respondents think parliament did not have sufficient debate on the second capital bill, with the ruling bloc submitting it in late June and the Diet passing it Friday.
A divisive law introducing criminal penalties for desecrating the national flag was also enacted earlier this month. Nearly 56 percent said they support the law while some 39 percent opposed it.
Regarding cutting the consumption tax on food and beverages being discussed among the ruling bloc and opposition parties, the largest share of respondents, 47.1 percent, said they would support lowering the rate from the current 8 percent to 1 percent if doing so would allow the measure to be introduced sooner.
The LDP and JIP vowed to cut the tax rate to zero for two years to help households cope with inflation during campaigning for the lower house election in February.
The survey, which was conducted for two days from Saturday, called 515 randomly selected households with eligible voters and 3,297 mobile phone numbers. It yielded responses from 423 households and 623 mobile phone users.
