Support for Abe cabinet dips on Japan casino vote: poll

Dec 19, 2016 Newsdesk Japan, Latest News, Top of the deck  

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Public support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet has fallen by nearly six percentage points compared to November. The passage on December 14 in Japan’s parliament – a body known as the Diet – of an enabling bill for casino resorts in that country was a factor in the decline, according to Kyodo news agency.

Approval for the cabinet of the governing Liberal Democratic Party slipped to 54.8 percent from 60.7 percent the previous month, according to a two-day nationwide poll by the news outlet. The same survey indicated the public disapproval rating for the cabinet rose to 34.1 percent, up 3.7 points.

More than half of respondents viewed negatively the passage of the casino industry enabling bill, as well as the outcome of a summit last week between Mr Abe (pictured) and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, said Kyodo.

Questioned about the Diet’s legalisation of casinos, 69.6 percent of respondents opposed the law and 24.6 percent supported it.

The same survey indicated 75.3 percent of respondents would not want a so-called integrated casino resort to be built in their neighbourhood. A total of 21.9 percent of those replying said they would support one.

Kyodo said it conducted the poll on 1,456 randomly selected households and received 1,018 valid responses.

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