TOKYO -- Just over half of the Japanese public supports holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo next month as long as hard limits are placed on the number of spectators, a Nikkei-TV Tokyo survey for the month of June finds.
Some 22% said that setting the maximum number of spectators that can attend a single event at 10,000, as currently planned, would be appropriate, while 33% said the events should instead be spectator-free. Another 4% said the games should be carried out as usual.
The combined 59% is larger than the 37% stating the games should be postponed or canceled.
Meanwhile, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga saw approval for the government climb to 43%, marking a three-percentage-point improvement from a month earlier.
As the country's vaccination campaign gains momentum, dissatisfaction with Suga's handling of the pandemic dropped seven points to 57%, while approval rose eight points to 39%.
Disapproval of the Suga government held steady at 50%. The prime minister's disapproval numbers have run higher than his approval numbers for two consecutive months.
When asked why they disapproved of the government, 48% of respondents cited a lack of leadership and 33% said they did not like its policies.
The poll was conducted between Friday and Sunday.
