Hatoyama Cabinet's support rate falls to 19% amid Futenma woes+

TOKYO, May 30 Kyodo -
Public support for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet dropped to 19.1
percent, down 1.6 percentage points from a month earlier, a Kyodo News poll
showed Sunday, following the government's announcement of a plan to relocate a
key U.S. military base within Okinawa Prefecture.
The latest telephone poll, conducted Saturday and Sunday, also showed 51.2
percent said Hatoyama should resign as prime minister as he failed to resolve
the base row in a way he promised he would, while 44.4 percent said he does not
need to resign.
The approval rating for Hatoyama's Cabinet fell below the 20 percent line for
the first time in Kyodo News polls, dealing a blow to Hatoyama and his
government ahead of the upper house election this summer. The rating, which
stood at 72.0 percent immediately after the Sept. 16 launch of the government,
tumbled to 36.3 percent in early March and further declined to 20.7 percent in
late April.
The poll also showed that the major opposition Liberal Democratic Party now has
more supporters than the ruling Democratic Party of Japan for the first time
since the DPJ took power.
When asked which political party they plan to vote for in the proportional
representation section of the looming House of Councilors election, 20.9
percent named the LDP, up 1.0 point from the previous poll in late April, while
19.9 percent chose the DPJ, down 3.5 points.
The same trend was seen in a question asking which party they support, with
21.9 percent naming the LDP, up 3.2 points, while 20.5 percent selected the
DPJ, down 3.6 points.
The two major parties were followed by Your Party, which garnered support from
10.5 percent, the Social Democratic Party with 4.5 percent, New Komeito with
4.4 percent, and the Japanese Communist Party with 2.0 percent. But the largest
single group of 27.5 percent said they do not have any party they support.
In the latest poll, 73.2 percent disapproved of the Cabinet, up 8.8 points. Of
them, 36.2 percent attributed it to Hatoyama's lack of leadership and 25.1
percent cited their lack of trust in him.
Over Hatoyama's decision to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station
within Okinawa Prefecture, 66.1 percent said they do not support the plan while
25.4 percent favored it.
Hatoyama has said he would resolve the base row by the end of May by coming up
with a relocation plan that can win approval from people in Okinawa, the DPJ's
coalition partners and the United States. But the government announced the
relocation policy on Friday after striking a deal only with Washington.
His dismissal of SDP leader Mizuho Fukushima as consumer affairs minister over
her opposition to the relocation plan was supported by 51.4 percent, while 40.8
percent said he should not have dismissed her.
As for the SDP's course of action following the dismissal, 67.3 percent said
the party should leave the tripartite coalition, with 21.6 percent saying the
party should remain in the coalition. The SDP decided Sunday to leave the
coalition.
More than half of the respondents showed dissatisfaction with the government's
response to the spread of foot-and-mouth disease among cows and pigs that has
led to the slaughter of many animals, with 58.7 percent disapproving of the
response against 32.2 percent supporting.
On who is most suited to serve as prime minister, New Renaissance Party leader
Yoichi Masuzoe topped the list with 15.7 percent, keeping the position from the
last survey despite a 2.6-point drop, followed by Deputy Prime Minister and
Finance Minister Naoto Kan with 9.3 percent, up 3.7 points.
The poll also showed 62.8 percent do not want the DPJ to secure the majority of
the upper house seats by itself in the upcoming election, and 74.9 percent
believe the DPJ's No.2 leader Ichiro Ozawa should step down over a scandal
involving his political funds.
The poll was conducted on a randomly selected 1,457 voters nationwide, of whom
1,033, or 70.9 percent, gave valid answers.
==Kyodo
2010-05-30 22:50:14


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