Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, center, attends a Cabinet meeting in Tokyo on Feb. 9, 2021. (Mainichi)

       TOKYO (Kyodo) -- The approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's Cabinet fell 4.1 points from a month ago to a record-low 31.8 percent, and 65.1 percent of people do not want Suga to remain in his post, a Kyodo News survey showed Monday.

       The disapproval rating rose 0.8 point to 50.6 percent, the highest level on record since the launch of the Suga Cabinet last September, a sign of public discontent with the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

       With the Tokyo Paralympics opening next Tuesday, 64.7 percent of respondents want the event to be held without spectators, according to the nationwide telephone survey conducted from Friday to Monday.

       The Tokyo Olympics, which ended Aug. 8, were held mostly behind closed doors due to the pandemic.

       Nineteen percent still believe that the Paralympics should be canceled, the survey said.

       Regarding the decision of the government and organizers to hold Olympic events amid the pandemic, 62.9 percent of the respondents expressed some degree of satisfaction about the Olympics, while 30.8 percent were dissatisfied with the games.

       As the Japanese capital and elsewhere have been seeing record numbers of daily COVID-19 cases in recent days, 59.8 percent of the respondents cited the Tokyo Olympics as one of the contributory factors to the rapid surge of infections in the country.

       With hospitals under strain due to a rising number of people in need of medical attention, 79.9 percent said they worry about the government's policy for treating COVID-19 patients.

       Suga decided earlier this month that only patients with severe COVID-19 cases, or at risk of developing severe symptoms, can be admitted to hospitals in areas facing a virus resurgence, drawing criticism from the public and both ruling and opposition lawmakers.

       The prime minister later clarified that patients with moderate symptoms who are at risk of developing severe symptoms will be admitted to hospitals.

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