69% of Japanese polled prefer Kan to Ozawa as DPJ leader

TOKYO, Aug. 28 Kyodo -
A majority of Japanese people polled want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to stay on
as leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, far surpassing those who
support party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa, according to a Kyodo News survey released
Saturday.
The telephone survey conducted Friday and Saturday showed 69.9 percent of those
surveyed backing Kan in the Sept. 14 DPJ leadership election, compared with
15.6 percent for Ozawa.
Among DPJ-supporting respondents, 82.0 percent said they want Kan to remain as
leader -- a finding that may well affect voting by eligible DPJ legislators,
regional assembly members and rank-and-file supporters of the party.
Public support for Kan's Cabinet came to 48.1 percent, up 9.4 percentage points
from the preceding survey early this month, while the disapproval rate was 36.2
percent, down 8.6 points for the first improvement since the July 11 upper
house election.
The survey found that topping the list of reasons for the support for Kan's
Cabinet was the lack of suitable alternatives for the premier's post, at 48.4
percent. The main reason cited for disapproval was low expectations of its
economic policies.
Kan, who became DPJ leader and premier only about three months ago, is to hold
a press conference Tuesday evening to formally announce his candidacy, party
members close to him said. Official campaigning for the election will kick off
Wednesday.
Ozawa, who held the party's No. 2 post of secretary general until June,
announced his candidacy for the DPJ leadership Thursday. He heads the DPJ's
largest group but Kan expressed his confidence Friday in gaining the upper
hand.
Asked about a possible change in the premiership depending on the outcome of
the DPJ leadership race, 56.1 percent of those surveyed said they think a
general election should be held against 39.1 percent who wanted no such
procedure.
If there is a new prime minister as a result of the DPJ election, it will be
Japan's third in a year.
As for handling the divided parliament where the DPJ holds a majority in the
lower house but lacks one in the upper house, 43.8 percent called for a general
election, ahead of 32.7 percent who favor the DPJ pursuing policy-by-policy
''partial coalition'' allies in other parties and 10.9 percent who want the DPJ
to form a new coalition to regain a majority in the upper chamber.
In response to a question about what people most expect of the prime minister,
34.6 percent said leadership and 31.4 percent said the ability to explain
things to the public.
Asked to name the next DPJ leader's most urgent tasks, 51.9 percent cited
jump-starting the economy and securing employment, followed by 34.3 percent who
sought administrative and fiscal reforms to rein in wasteful spending.
The survey also showed that 52.1 percent do not think the DPJ promise in last
year's general election to introduce toll-free highways should be completed.
Support for major political parties stood at 32.6 percent for the DPJ, 24.7
percent for the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, 12.5 percent for Your
Party and 2.6 percent for the New Komeito party.
They are followed by 2.4 percent for the Japanese Communist Party, 0.9 percent
for the Social Democratic Party, 0.5 percent for the Sunrise Party of Japan and
New Renaissance Party, 0.4 percent each for the People's New Party, the DPJ's
tiny coalition partner, and New Party Nippon, and 19.5 percent said they
support no particular party.
The survey was carried out by telephone on 1,450 randomly selected voters
nationwide, of whom 1,029 gave valid answers.
==Kyodo