Asia-Pacific

Japan's ruling Cabinet support rate above 60 percent

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-10 12:25

TOKYO - Japan's New Prime Minister Naoto Kan 's Cabinet is gaining public support ahead of key upper house elections in July, according to the results of opinion polls in major national newspapers on Thursday.

The Mainichi Shimbun, Japan's No. 3 daily by circulation, put Kan's Cabinet support rate at 66 percent, 20 percent higher than that for his predecessor's Cabinet in the run up to Yukio Hatoyama 's resignation from office.

The Mainichi said that 18 percent of pollsters disapproved of Kan's Cabinet, however 41 percent will vote for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), compared to 14 percent who will vote for the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party.

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Similarly, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's widest read newspaper, showed the support rate for Kan's Cabinet stood at 64 percent, a jump of 19 percent from the Hatoyama Cabinet. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they will vote for the DPJ, compared with 13 percent for the LDP, the Yomiuri poll showed.

According to the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's No. 2 newspaper, the support rate climbed 17 percent from the former Cabinet, to 60 percent for Kan's Cabinet. The disapproval rate was 20 percent, the Asahi said.

Following the inauguration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet, the three dailies conducted nationwide telephone polls on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Political analysts suggest that the Cabinet's new-found popularity is partly based on prime minister Kan's grassroots ethos and his reshuffling of the Cabinet to make it less vulnerable to the influence of former Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa.

Coupled with this, political commentators are saying that the public is also responding to "proactive comments" about economic and financial issues from senior members like newly appointed Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who has voiced a strong stance on "fiscal discipline" to tackle Japan's national debt and lingering deflation.