(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Three-in-five people in Japan are dissatisfied with the work of the current government, according to a poll by Kyodo News. 59.6 per cent of respondents disapprove of the appointed cabinet, up nine 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.

Yesterday, lawmakers from the opposition-controlled upper house approved the government’s proposed candidate to fill the vacant post of Central Bank governor after rejecting the first two options put forward by Fukuda: Koji Tanami and Toshiro Muto. In the end, acting Central Bank governor Masaaki Shirakawa was ratified, effectively ending the rift between pro-government and opposition parties.

Still, DPJ lawmakers voted against Fukuda’s choice for the deputy-governor position: former deputy finance minister for international affairs Hiroshi Watanabe. Fukuda urged the legislators to reconsider, saying, "We made a proposal which I thought was the best choice. Is it so bad for a former bureaucrat to win a post, if that person happens to be best suited for the job? Are we going to become a nation that can’t use its talent?"

DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa said Watanabe represents the old political class in Japan, adding, "That is the biggest cause of corruption in bureaucracy."

Polling Data

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

Source: Kyodo News
Methodology: Interviews with 1,022 Japanese adults, conducted on Apr. 4 and Apr. 5, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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