Tokyo, February 19 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun released a poll on February 19 showing that the approval rating of Fumio Kishida's cabinet was 24 percent this month, and it has been in "dangerous waters" for four consecutive months.
According to the results of the Yomiuri Shimbun nationwide poll conducted from the 16th to the 18th, the approval rating of the Kishida cabinet this month is the same as that of the previous month, which is the lowest level since the Liberal Democratic Party returned to power in 2012. The Cabinet disapproval rate was also the same as the previous month's survey at 61%. The LDP's support fell to 24% that month, the lowest since the LDP returned to power in 2012.
According to the above-mentioned results, the Japanese people are very dissatisfied with the Liberal Democratic Party's "black gold" scandal and Prime Minister Kishida's response measures. Seventy-six percent of respondents said that the dissolution of the three major LDP factions in January this year "will not help restore trust in the LDP."
In Japan, a cabinet approval rating of less than 30% is considered to be in "dangerous waters", and a further drop below 20% is considered to be in "dangerous waters".
In November last year, the "black gold" scandal was exposed within the Liberal Democratic Party. A number of factions of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have set sales targets for their members of the Diet and asked them to raise political fundraising party tickets. If the sales target is exceeded, the excess funds will be returned to the councillor in the form of a "kickback". This part of the money will not be registered on the report of income and expenditure of factions and the income and expenditure report of political funds of parliamentarians, and thus become unregulated secret funds. The Special Investigation Division of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors' Office then intervened in the investigation. Affected by the "black gold" scandal, the three major factions of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Kishida faction, the * faction, and the Nikai faction, decided to dissolve on January 19. (ENDS).