Poll: Fukuda Cabinet's support still at low 34%

Support for Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's Cabinet stood at 34 percent in a poll conducted from Friday afternoon to Saturday evening, just after the ruling coalition rammed its new refueling bill through the Diet.

The support rate was a slight rise from its nadir of 31 percent in a similar poll over Dec. 19 and 20. But it is a far cry from the peak of 53 percent who supported the Cabinet in September last year, just after Fukuda assumed the post of prime minister.

Support rates for the Fukuda Cabinet were above 40 percent until early December, but fell later that month when the government's bungling of public pension records worsened.

In last week's telephone poll, which had 956 valid responses from randomly chosen voters nationwide, 45 percent, down from 48 percent in the previous poll, said they did not support the Fukuda Cabinet.

The low rate comes after controversy over the ruling coalition's ramming through of its bill to resume the Maritime Self-Defense Force

(MSDF) refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of the U.S.-led anti-terror operations in Afghanistan.

After the opposition-led Upper House voted down the bill Friday morning, it was immediately sent back to the Lower House, where it was passed that afternoon with a vote of 340 for and 133 opposed.

Article 59 of the Constitution requires passage by a majority of more than two-thirds for any bill sent back to the Lower House after defeat in the Upper House.

The survey showed public sentiment on the rare move remains evenly divided, with 41 percent calling it appropriate and 41 percent saying it was not. In the Dec. 19-20 survey, 43 percent had said such a tactic was not appropriate, while 37 percent said it was appropriate.

Asked about the MSDF dispatch, 48 percent said resuming the refueling activities was not necessary, while 34 percent said it was needed. In the Dec. 19-20 survey, 48 percent said it was not necessary, while 37 percent said it was.

Meanwhile, the public is apparently taking a harsher view of the Fukuda Cabinet's handling of the pension problem.

This time, 26 percent, down from 36 percent in the previous survey, gave the prime minister high marks. However, 55 percent, up from 46 percent, said they did not.

Among respondents supporting the Fukuda administration, 45 percent said they held the administration's handling of the issue in high regard, while 31 percent said they did not.

Fukuda won respect for his late-December decision to offer the blanket relief measures sought by plaintiffs in hepatitis C lawsuits, which led to last week's legislation to allow such relief. Overall, 71 percent said they thought highly of this move.

But among that group, only 40 percent said they supported the Fukuda Cabinet, while 41 said they did not, indicating that issue wasn't enough to win Fukuda full marks.

Asked which party they would vote for if a Lower House election were held today, 36 percent said Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), compared with 38 percent in the Dec. 19-20 survey.

Just 25 percent chose Fukuda's Liberal Democratic Party, compared with 23 percent in the Dec. 19-20 survey.(IHT/Asahi: January 14,2008)