(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Japanese people are increasingly disappointed with the performance of the country’s cabinet, according to a poll by Kyodo News. 35.3 per cent of respondents approve of prime minister Yasuo Fukuda’s team, down 11.7 points since November.

In September, 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. 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.

Several members of Fukuda’s LDP have recently called for a cabinet reshuffle. On Dec. 14, the prime minister rejected these calls to implement changes soon, saying, "I will make a decision, carefully looking at the political situation, Diet deliberations and the progress of the extended Diet session."

Polling Data

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

Source: Kyodo News
Methodology: Interviews with 1,033 Japanese adults, conducted on Dec. 15 and Dec. 16, 2007. No margin of error was provided.

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