Support rate for Hatoyama Cabinet rises to slightly above 50%

TOKYO, Jan. 11 Kyodo -
The support rate for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet rose to slightly
above 50 percent following the appointment of Naoto Kan as new finance
minister, a Kyodo News survey showed Monday.
But a majority of people polled in the nationwide telephone survey, conducted
Sunday and Monday, said Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro
Ozawa has not fulfilled his responsibility to explain a fund management
scandal.
The support rate for the Cabinet came to 50.8 percent in the latest survey, up
3.6 percentage points from the previous survey conducted in late December. The
disapproval rate was 33.2 percent, down 4.9 points.
The survey showed a total 59.0 percent have high expectations or a certain
degree of positive expectations for Kan, compared with 35.2 percent who do not
have positive expectations for the new finance minister.
Kan, also deputy prime minister, replaced Hirohisa Fujii whose resignation for
health reasons was officially approved by the government on Thursday.
But 67.2 percent said Fujii's resignation will have a negative impact on
Hatoyama's management of the government, compared with 26.7 percent who said
there will be no impact.
Fujii, who was in charge of drafting the fiscal 2010 state budget, stepped down
before deliberations of the budget proposal at the ordinary Diet session to
convene Jan. 18.
In the survey, 32.4 percent expressed hope that Kan will place top priority on
measures to boost the economy and deal with job situations, while 29.5 percent
said eliminating wasteful government spending should be the most pressing issue
for the new finance minister.
As for alleged accounting irregularities at Ozawa's fund management body, 85.4
percent said Ozawa has not fulfilled accountability for the scandal.
In the event his former aides are indicted over the scandal, 35.1 percent said
Ozawa should step down as the DPJ's secretary general, while 25.3 percent
called for his resignation as a Diet member.
A total of 1,477 eligible voters were reached, of whom 1,031 replied.
The support rate for the ruling DPJ rose 2.6 points from the previous survey to
38.7 percent, compared with 17.3 percent for the main opposition Liberal
Democratic Party, down 6.4 points.
Other than the two main parties, the support rate came to 3.4 percent for the
New Komeito party, 3.0 percent for the Social Democratic Party, 2.9 percent for
the Japanese Communist Party, 2.7 percent for Your Party and 0.1 percent for
the People's New Party.
==Kyodo