Tokyo, May 31: The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has plunged to its lowest level since his party’s landslide election victory in August, a poll released Monday showed.
Support for the cabinet fell to 17 percent in a survey conducted on Saturday and Sunday, the Asahi Shimbun poll showed, down four percentage points from two weeks ago. The disapproval rating rose to 70 percent.
The pressure on the embattled Hatoyama increased when Japan’s small socialist party Sunday walked out of the ruling coalition in a row over a US military base in Okinawa.
After months of tension, Tokyo and Washington said in a joint statement last week the base would be moved, as first agreed in 2006, from a crowded urban area to a coastal region of Okinawa.
The move by the socialists came after Hatoyama on Friday dismissed Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Mizuho Fukushima as his consumer affairs minister. Fukushima had denounced Hatoyama’s decision.
Asked about the government’s decision to keep the US base on Okinawa, 57 percent of voters said they disapproved, while 27 percent said they supported it, the Asahi poll said.
Two other polls conducted on Saturday and Sunday, by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper and Kyodo News, also showed approval ratings for the cabinet dipping to new lows of 19 percent. Disapproval ratings rose to 75 percent and 73 percent respectively.
Pressure is reportedly growing within the DPJ for Hatoyama to stand down ahead of upper house elections in July. Local media reported there were moves to remove him from his post.
One anonymous upper house member told the Asahi newspaper: “The prime minister is not trusted by voters any more. I’ll start taking actions.”
—Agencies