Public support for Japan’s new prime minister has plunged to 48 percent from a high of 71 percent, with a growing number of voters complaining he lacks leadership amid a deadlock over the relocation of a US military base, a poll showed yesterday.
The poll by the major daily Asahi Shimbun found the latest approval rating for Yukio Hatoyama’s Cabinet dropped 14 percentage points from 62 percent last month and was down from 71 percent in September, when Hatoyama took office.
Around 74 percent of respondents in the Asahi survey said Hatoyama lacked leadership, with another 60 percent disapproving of his handling of the relocation of a US Marine base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa.
PHOTO: EPA
The relocation of the US military base is at the center of a growing row between Tokyo and Washington. Under a 2006 plan, the US base was to be moved to a less crowded part of northern Okinawa, but Hatoyama has said the relocation site could be changed — perhaps even off the island.
The US had hoped for a resolution on the relocation issue by year’s end. But Japan recently postponed a decision for several more months, deepening a deadlock over the relocation issue.
The latest survey showed public support for Hatoyama fell below the crucial 50 percent mark just three months after he took office following a historic electoral victory in August.
When he took office in September, the premier enjoyed stellar public support amid surging public expectations. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan had ousted the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power in historic elections in August.
The disapproval rating for Hatoyama rose to 34 percent this month from 21 percent a month earlier, the Asahi poll showed.
Another survey by the Mainichi newspaper found yesterday the approval rating for Hatoyama dropped to 55 percent this month from 64 percent a month earlier.
The disapproval rating for the prime minister increased to 34 percent from 21 percent in a previous survey a month ago.
Around 50 percent of respondents in the Mainichi survey said they do not support Hatoyama’s handling of the relocation of the US military base in Okinawa.
The Asahi conducted the survey on Saturday and Sunday through random telephone interviews. The paper said the survey had 2,115 responses. The Mainichi also conducted the poll over the weekend through random telephone interviews.
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