TOKYO -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's signature economic program continues to draw more critics than supporters, though the government's recent rapprochement with South Korea is favored by a majority, a recent Nikkei Inc./TV Tokyo survey shows.
Approval for Abenomics held roughly steady from the December figure at 37%. Respondents saying they do not approve dropped 2 points to 42%. The approve/disapprove split was 41% to 40% among respondents in the greater Tokyo area and the Kansai region, which includes Kyoto and Osaka. But elsewhere, disapproval outweighed approval by 9 points at 43% to 34%, signaling a weaker sense of an economic recovery outside major urban areas.