According to a new poll conducted by the newspaper Mainichi and published on Saturday, the disapproval rating for Abe's cabinet has increased from 45 percent to 64 percent.
Abe's government has not seen such low approval ratings for nearly three years. It comes amid a scandal involving Hiromu Kurokawa, who violated the coronavirus-related self-isolation regime by playing mahjong with other people for money (which is illegal in Japan per se).
Japanese chief prosecutor Hiromu Kurokawa, whose tenure has controversially been extended by the Abe government, will apparently announce his resignation on Thursday, after a Mahjong gambling scandal emerged. #黒川検事長の懲戒免職を求めますhttps://t.co/DuxCjzHl7k
— @thoton suspended. Follow @thoton9 instead. (@thoton9) May 20, 2020
At the same time, a similar poll, conducted on 6 May, showed that the Abe cabinet's approval rating stood at 40 percent.
On Friday, the Japanese government accepted Kurokawa's resignation. The situation has been complicated by the Japanese government allowing Kurokawa to stay in his post beyond the retirement age of 63.
Many suspect it was done to appoint him, a person close to the prime minister, as the next prosecutor-general. Nearly 50 percent of respondents believe that Abe and Justice Minister Masako Mori were responsible for the situation with Kurokawa.
