Photo/Illutration Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announces his candidacy for the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election at a news conference on Sept. 2. (Ryo Kato)

Thirty-eight percent of voters view Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga as the most suitable candidate for prime minister, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey that saw nearly 30 percent picking “none of the above.”

Suga was the top choice to replace Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the telephone survey conducted on Sept. 2 and 3, followed by Shigeru Ishiba, former Liberal Democratic Party secretary-general, at 25 percent, and Fumio Kishida, LDP policy chief, at 5 percent.

However, 28 percent of respondents said “there are no candidates I want to choose from among them.”

Suga, Ishiba and Kishida will run in the Sept. 14 election for LDP president to replace Abe. The winner is essentially guaranteed to be selected the next prime minister in the Diet.

In a June survey, 31 percent of respondents picked Ishiba as the most suitable replacement from among seven possible candidates. Suga was selected by only 3 percent.

The field has since been whittled down, and Suga has gained support from major LDP factions, making him the clear front-runner in the party’s election, in which only LDP lawmakers and representatives of prefectural chapters will cast ballots.

Abe in late August announced his resignation due to health reasons after seven years and eight months in power.

In total, 71 percent of respondents gave positive evaluations—17 percent said “very high” and 54 percent picked “fairly high”—for the policies of the second Abe administration.

In comparison, 28 percent gave negative marks--19 percent picked “relatively low” and 9 percent chose “very low”—for the policies.

The Asahi Shimbun asked similar questions in a survey in September 2007 after Abe resigned for the first time as prime minister. At that time, 37 percent of voters gave him a “high” evaluation, compared with 60 percent who gave him a “low” grade.

Respondents in the latest survey were asked to select which of Abe’s policies were the most impressive.

Thirty percent chose “diplomacy and national security,” followed by “economy” at 24 percent, “social security” at 14 percent, and “constitutional revision” at 5 percent.

Twenty-two percent said “there were no policies that they could evaluate highly.”

The Abe administration was criticized over its response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, and the Cabinet’s approval rating has slid this year.

Forty-one percent said Abe “displayed leadership” in taking measures to prevent the spread of the virus, but 49 percent said he “did not display leadership” during the health crisis.

His administration has also been plagued by scandals, including suspected favoritism to the Moritomo Gakuen private school operator and the Kake Educational Institution, as well as growing expenses and now-missing guest lists for publicly funded cherry blossom viewing parties.

Eighteen percent of respondents said their trust in the government increased during the Abe administration, 21 percent said their trust declined, and 59 percent said their trust level “remained the same.”

The nationwide survey used landline and mobile phone numbers selected at random by computer and received 1,130 valid responses: 534 from 1,028 households with an eligible voter and 596 from 1,096 mobile phone users who are eligible voters.

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