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Sixty-one percent of voters are dissatisfied with the government’s “unprecedented” measures to lift the falling birthrate, nearly double the 33 percent who believe the methods have promise, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has described the declining birthrate as a crisis that is nearing the point of no return.

But his government’s measures announced in late March to address the issue have failed to impress the public.

Sixty-five percent of women and 57 percent of men said the measures are unpromising. In contrast, 29 percent of women and 38 percent of men expect much from the measures, according to the nationwide telephone survey conducted on April 8 and 9.

The approval rating for Kishida’s Cabinet was 38 percent, down slightly from 40 percent in the previous survey conducted in March.

The disapproval rating was 45 percent, down by 5 points.

The approval rating had been trending upward since hitting a low point of 31 percent in December 2022.

In the latest survey, 34 percent of women approved of the Cabinet. The approval rate was 42 percent among men.

Concerning the administration’s overall policies to reverse the downward fertility trend, 46 percent of respondents said they appreciated them greatly or to some extent, while 52 percent said they didn’t appreciate them much or at all.

Among women who were unimpressed with the fertility policies, only 19 percent approved of the Kishida Cabinet.

In the survey in February, 36 percent of voters gave positive responses about the fertility policies, compared with 60 percent who gave negative responses.

On Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 47 percent said they appreciated Kishida’s response to the crisis while 39 percent said they did not.

Those who backed the prime minister’s Ukraine policies trended from 50 to 69 percent in surveys conducted between March and May 2022, shortly after Russia invaded the country.

Back then, the Kishida Cabinet had its highest approval rating, topping 50 percent.

Although support for Kishida’s Ukraine policies has turned upward from February’s 40 percent, his surprise visit to Kiev in March had only a limited impact in improving his administration’s approval ratings.

Some members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are calling for a snap election, but 67 percent of survey respondents said it can wait, far exceeding the 22 percent who said an election should be held soon.

LDP supporters in particular were not keen on dissolving the Lower House, with 84 percent of them saying a snap election can wait.

The approval rating for the LDP rose 1 percentage point to 32 percent, while that of opposition Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) jumped 2 points to 6 percent.

Support for the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan dropped 1 point to 5 percent.

The survey also showed people are less concerned about COVID-19, with a record 41 percent saying they were not worried much or at all about a resurgence of the novel coronavirus.

Nevertheless, 59 percent said they were still worried greatly or to some extent about the virus.