(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Public support for the administration of Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda has plummeted this month, according to a poll by Nikkei. 32 per cent of respondents approve of Fukuda’s appointed cabinet, down eight points since February.

In September 2007, 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.

This month, Fukuda was criticized by members of his own party for failing to nominate a suitable candidate to head the Central Bank. On Mar. 21, Koichi Kato—the LDP’s former secretary general—said that the prime minister must find a person who is acceptable for the opposition DPJ, adding that Fukuda’s failure to do so "is unstable—voters are watching what kind of decisions he can make as a politician."

The term of Central Bank governor Toshihiko Fukui expired on Mar. 19. The House of Councillors rejected the first two candidates put forward by Fukuda: Koji Tanami and Toshiro Muto.

Polling Data

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

Source: Nikkei
Methodology: Interviews with 865 Japanese adults, conducted from Mar. 21 to Mar. 23, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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