(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Less than a third of people in Japan are content with the current administration’s performance, according to a poll by Nikkei. 29 per cent of respondents approve of the appointed cabinet, down three points since March.

In September 2007, Yasuo Fukuda was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and officially sworn in as Japan’s prime minister, substituting Shinzo Abe. Fukuda served as chief cabinet secretary during the premierships of Yoshiro Mori and Junichiro Koizumi. He is also the son of former Japanese head of government Takeo Fukuda.

Fukuda retained many of Abe’s collaborators in the new Japanese cabinet. Nobutaka Machimura—who served as foreign minister under Abe—was appointed as chief cabinet secretary, Masahiko Komura is now in charge of foreign affairs, and Shigeru Ishiba has taken over as defence minister.

An election to renew half of the House of Councillors seats took place in July 2007. Final results gave the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) 60 of the 121 seats at stake, with the governing LDP winning 37 mandates. The opposition—with 137 seats—now holds a majority in the upper house of Japan’s Diet for the first time since the LDP was founded in 1955.

Earlier this month, agriculture minister Masatoshi Wakabayashi said Japan will raise concerns over rising food prices during the next round of free trade talks led by the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying, "We must discuss ways to build a framework in which importers can express our positions while producers clarify their reasons for launching export regulations."

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of Yasuo Fukuda’s cabinet?

Source: Nikkei
Methodology: Interviews with 908 Japanese adults, conducted from Apr. 18 to Apr. 20, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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