Support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet after Monday's reshuffle climbed to 60.1 percent, 5.6 percentage points higher than the previous survey in mid-October.
The most recent numbers in the Kyodo News survey mark the first time the approval rate has risen above 60 percent since September 2003, shortly after Koizumi chose new leaders for his Liberal Democratic Party, at that time appointing Shinzo Abe as secretary general.
Abe was named chief Cabinet secretary, the government's top spokesman, in the newly formed Cabinet.
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