The approval rate for Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's cabinet has dropped to 38.9 percent, while the disapproval rate rose to 57.3 percent, according to the latest poll released on Sunday by the Japanese News Network (JNN), a commercial television network run by TBS Television.
The poll shows that the approval rate for the Ishiba cabinet has dropped by 12.7 percentage points from the previous month to 38.9 percent, while the disapproval rate rising by 13.8 percentage points from last month to 57.3 percent.
Following Japan's general election on October 27, the ruling coalition of Ishiba's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its partner Komeito fell short of the majority threshold, amid declining public trust exacerbated by its funds scandal.
The LDP and Komeito got a total of 215 of the 465 seats in the powerful chamber of parliament, below the 233 seats needed for the majority. The LDP alone won 191 seats, much less than the 247 seats it held prior to the election.
In contrast, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party significantly increased its representation, rising from 98 seats before the election to 148 seats.
The result is largely in line with media forecasts as public outrage over the LDP's funding scandal persisted. The last time when the coalition lost a majority was in 2009.
At the end of last year, the LDP was exposed for the slush funds scandal in which the party's factions set up secret funds and took kickbacks. Since then, its approval rate has suffered a setback, with scarcely any improvement.
Disapproval rate for Japan's Ishiba cabinet rises to 57.3 pct: poll
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 45,317, with 107,713 others injured, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Monday.
During the past 24 hours, the Israeli military killed 58 people and wounded 86 others in Gaza, according to the statement.
The Hamas-run media office said on Monday that more than 50 Palestinians were killed or injured in an Israeli military operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.
The office described the Israeli army's actions as a "horrific, brutal crime," claiming that the camp was stormed by over 17 tanks, bulldozers, military vehicles, and dozens of heavily armed soldiers, supported by drones.
The statement said that the casualties were all civilians, and more than half of them were women and children. It also reported that over 20 housing units were destroyed, with significant and widespread damage sustained during the Israeli attacks.
Israel's military and Shin Bet security agency also announced on Monday that they had killed Muhammad Ahmed Albec, the head of the National Security Directorate of Hamas' Security Services, in an airstrike on a school in Gaza.
At least eight people were killed in the strike Sunday on the Musa bin Nusair school in Gaza City's Daraj al-Tuffah neighborhood, which was sheltering displaced people, according to Palestinian health officials.
The Israeli military and Shin Bet claimed in a joint statement that a Hamas command center was located within the school compound, which was struck by the air force. It described Albec as "a central figure" in Hamas' security apparatus.
Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza rises to 45,317
