Public support for Kan's Cabinet drops 14.9 points to 32.7%+

TOKYO, Nov. 7 Kyodo -
The public support rating for Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet plunged to
32.7 percent in the latest Kyodo News poll released Sunday, down 14.9
percentage points from the previous survey in early October in a sign of
continued frustration over the government's performance.
In the nationwide telephone survey conducted Saturday and Sunday, the
disapproval rating rose to 48.6 percent from 36.6 percent in the Oct. 5 to 6
poll, reflecting people's dissatisfaction with the government's handling of a
territorial dispute with China and a political funds scandal involving ruling
party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa.
A total of 74.0 percent of respondents said they do not appreciate the
Cabinet's foreign policies, while 58.6 percent said they want to see Ozawa, a
former Democratic Party of Japan leader, summoned to the Diet over accounting
irregularities at his fund management body.
The survey also found that 46.6 percent of the respondents were in favor of
Japan's joining a trans-Pacific free trade agreement, called the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, compared with 38.6 percent who opposed such move.
By political party, the support rating for the DPJ dropped to 28.6 percent,
down 5.3 points from last month's survey, while the proportion of those backing
the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party rose 5.6 points to 25.8 percent.
In a question in which respondents can choose multiple answers on how they see
Japan's future ties with China, the most popular response was that the two
countries will have a somewhat distant relationship at 48.6 percent.
This was followed by the answer that said the relationship would remain
unchanged, at 24.4 percent, while 22.9 percent chose the response that said the
two countries will become closer.
On Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit earlier this month to one of four
Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, a combined 52.0 percent said that either
''strong countermeasures'' such as recalling Japan's ambassador to Russia or
''certain countermeasures'' such as cutting back on economic cooperation with
Russia should be taken.
But 36.0 percent of the respondents said Japan should express regret to Russia
without taking any countermeasures.
On Japan's overall foreign policies, including its relations with the United
States, 21.8 percent said they do not appreciate them at all and 52.2 percent
said they do not value them very much, while a combined 23.4 percent expressed
varying degrees of satisfaction with the policies.
On Ozawa, 22.4 percent said he should provide an explanation about the
political funds scandal at a court, and 13.1 percent said he should explain the
matter to the Diet's political ethics hearing committee.
On the DPJ's plan to resume accepting corporate donations, 67.9 percent said
the move is problematic as it runs counter to one of the party's election
pledges, while 20.5 percent said they see no problem as receiving such
donations is not banned under the political funds control law.
Among support ratings for other parties, Your Party got an 8.3 percent backing,
followed by 3.5 percent for the New Komeito party, 2.1 percent for the Japanese
Communist Party, 1.3 percent of the Social Democratic Party and 0.8 percent for
the People's New Party.
The latest poll covered 1,452 randomly selected households with eligible voters
and valid responses were received from 1,028 individuals.
==Kyodo
2010-11-07 23:42:13