78% of Japanese public wants Unification Church disbanded
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of a meeting with his cabinet on Oct. 28 in Tokyo. (Photo by Uichiro Kasai)
TOKYO -- Support for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet dipped to a new low of 42% in the latest Nikkei/TV Tokyo poll, as Japan's public remains dissatisfied over the Unification Church's ties with officials in the government and ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The cabinet approval rating slipped 1 percentage point from the September survey, while disapproval remained at 49%. Kishida's recent removal of Daishiro Yamagiwa, Japan's minister in charge of economic security, over his ties with the church and the unveiling of economic measures on Friday to tackle inflation failed to buoy support.
The approval rating has declined for five straight months, from the peak of 66% in May. It has not dipped into the 30s -- the level at which Kishida's predecessors Yoshihide Suga and Shinzo Abe announced they would step down.
The government plans to launch an investigation of the Unification Church, known formally as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, under the law governing religious organizations by year-end. Abe was assassinated in July by a man who held a grudge against the church, which has been criticized for pressuring members and others to donate or to buy items for exorbitant prices.
The survey found that 78% think the Unification Church should be disbanded in Japan, while 14% oppose such a move. The figure reached 87% among those who identified as supporters of opposition parties and 71% among independent voters, and it also surpassed 70% even among supporters of the cabinet or the LDP.
The survey was conducted Friday to Sunday by Nikkei Research using random-digit dialing to target those 18 and older. It drew 929 respondents, for a response rate of 39.4%.
Source: https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Kishida-cabinet-approval-plumbs-new-low-of-42-Nikkei-poll
