Support for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has edged down to 68.0 percent in the latest poll from 70.9 percent last month, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday. In a telephone survey conducted on Saturday and Sunday, 65.0 percent of respondents said they expect positive effects from "Abenomics," and the economic policies pursued by Abe to turn around Japan's deflation-battered economy, against 29 percent who replied they are not expecting much.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera sought the international community's understanding Saturday of debates in Japan on exercising the right to collective self-defense, saying such a move would help the country make "a more proactive and creative contribution toward regional stability."

The government decided Wednesday to designate the coming three years as an "intensive investment prompting period" to accelerate its economic growth strategy aimed at conquering nearly two decades of Japan's deflationary recession. In the outline of the strategy, presented by economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari earlier in the day, the government also positioned the next five years as an "emergency structural reform period," pledging to bring about industrial reorganization by taking such measures as promoting labor market flexibility.

Japanese Vice Defense Minister Masanori Nishi will visit the United States from next Monday to Thursday for talks with senior Pentagon officials and think tank experts, the Defense Ministry said Friday. Topics at these talks will include possible revisions to the Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines specifying the roles of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. forces.