Public support for Japan’s Prime Minister has plunged to 48 percent, falling below the crucial 50 percent mark just three months after he took office following a historic electoral victory, a poll showed on Monday.
The poll by the major daily Asahi found the latest approval rating for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s Cabinet dropped by 14 percentage points from 62 percent in a previous survey in November, indicating that public support for Mr. Hatoyama is waning quickly.
When he took office in September, the premier commanded a stellar 71 percent public support in an Asahi poll amid surging public expectations. Mr. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan had ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power in historic elections in August.
But the December Asahi survey found that 74 percent of respondents said Mr. Hatoyama lacked leadership.
Around 60 percent of respondents also disapproved of Mr. Hatoyama’s handling of the relocation of a U.S. Marine base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
The relocation of the U.S. military base is at the centre of a growing row between Tokyo and Washington. Under a 2006 plan, the U.S. base was to be moved to a less crowded part of northern Okinawa, but Mr. Hatoyama has said the relocation site could be changed -- perhaps even off the island.
The United States had hoped for a resolution on the relocation issue by year-end. But Japan recently postponed a decision for several more months.
The disapproval rating for Mr. Hatoyama rose to 34 percent in December from 21 percent in November, the Asahi poll showed.
Another survey by the Mainichi newspaper found the disapproval rating for the prime minister increased to 34 percent from 21 percent in a previous survey in November.
The approval rating for Mr. Hatoyama in the Mainichi survey dropped to 55 percent in December from 64 percent in November.
The Asahi conducted the survey on Dec. 19-20 through random telephone interviews. The paper said the survey had 2,115 responses. The Asahi did not give a margin of error, but a poll of the Asahi survey’s size would generally have a 3 percentage point margin of error.
The Mainichi also conducted the poll on Dec. 19-20 through random telephone interviews. The paper said it had 1,032 responses. The Mainichi did not give a margin of error, but a poll of the Mainichi survey’s size would generally have a 5 percentage point margin of error.
