Support for Abe falls

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s approval rating has fallen sharply, an opinion poll showed on Monday, as scandals erode public confidence in a government now in its fifth year.

Abe took power in December 2012 on the back of widespread frustration with the previous administration’s handling of the 2011 nuclear disaster and perceived mismanagement of ties with key ally the US. He vowed to revive the world’s third-largest economy by ending years of on-and-off deflation and pursue his pet project of amending Japan’s post-war pacificist constitution that bans it from use of force except in the strictest sense of self-defence.