Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, center, attends a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Nov. 24, 2021. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stands at 60.0 percent, down 0.5 point from November, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.

       The survey came as the government has been struggling to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus while also working to revive the pandemic-hit economy with steps such as cash handouts to households, over which Kishida has been accused of reversing his position and causing confusion.

       The disapproval rating for the Cabinet fell to 22.7 percent from 23.0 percent.

       The two-day telephone poll through Sunday also showed 79.2 percent supported providing the 100,000 yen ($880) in benefits to child-rearing households in the form of cash.

       Kishida's government had planned to initially give 50,000 yen in cash and the remainder in vouchers later for each child aged 18 or younger living in a household in which the primary earner's annual income is less than 9.6 million yen.

       The government later decided to allow municipalities to provide all-cash benefits. Opposition parties had argued that issuing vouchers would result in massive additional costs and add to the burden on local governments that are currently preparing to administer booster vaccine doses for COVID-19.

       Font Size S M L Print Timeline 0