Support rate for Hatoyama Cabinet drops to 33%: Kyodo poll

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TOKYO, April 4 Kyodo -
The approval rate for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet has fallen to
33.0 percent and the disapproval rating topped the 50 percent mark for the
first time since its launch last September at 53.3 percent, a Kyodo News poll
showed Sunday.
The support rate declined 3.3 percentage points from a similar nationwide
telephone survey conducted in March and hit a new low for the Cabinet, while
the disapproval rate rose 4.4 points with roughly one out of three respondents
saying Hatoyama lacks leadership qualities.
Only 27.1 percent of respondents, meanwhile, said they expect much from a new
political party being planned by former Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano, who is
set to leave the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, and independent
Takeo Hiranuma, a former trade minister, and 65.9 percent said they do not.
Asked what if Hatoyama fails to settle the issue of relocating the U.S.
Marines' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa by the end of May as pledged, 47.1
percent said he should resign, narrowly outnumbering 45.3 percent who said
there is no need for the premier to step down.
In the survey, conducted Saturday and Sunday, a total of 1,470 households with
eligible voters were called and valid responses were received from 1,024
individuals.
As for this summer's House of Councillors election, 21.2 percent said they
would vote for the LDP in the proportional-representation section, down 5.1
percent from the month before, and 26.3 percent preferred Hatoyama's Democratic
Party of Japan, down 0.6 point.
The prospective support rate rose nearly two-fold to 9.8 percent for Your
Party, which was formed by reformists before the House of Representatives
election last August. More than half the respondents -- 56.8 percent -- said it
would be desirable that the DPJ does not secure a majority in the upper house
by itself.
As many as 81.4 percent of the respondents said DPJ Secretary General
Ichiro Ozawa should resign as the ruling party's No. 2 over his political funding
scandal, up 6.6 points.
Regarding an issue that has divided the Cabinet, 52.7 percent showed their
opposition to the government's plan to raise the postal savings ceiling from 10
million per person to 20 million yen, while 35.0 percent said they support it.
When asked who was best suited to be prime minister, 22.4 percent of the
respondents, the highest proportion, picked former Health, Labor and Welfare
Minister Yoichi Masuzoe of the LDP. He was followed by Deputy Prime Minister
Naoto Kan at 8.9 percent and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at 7.8 percent.
Hatoyama tumbled from second to fifth at 7.1 percent. LDP President Sadakazu
Tanigaki was 10th with 2.1 percent support.
The survey also found that support ratings rose 1.3 points to 30.3 percent for
the DPJ and dropped 6.6 points to 18.0 percent for the LDP.
Your Party saw public support jump 5.7 points to 9.6 percent. Ratings also came
to 2.6 percent for the New Komeito party, 3.3 percent for the Japanese
Communist Party, 1.0 percent for the Social Democratic Party and 0.7 percent
for the People's New Party.
The SDP and PNP are the DPJ's junior partners in the coalition government.
==Kyodo
2010-04-04 21:21:21