April 12, 2008

Abstract: (Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The administration of Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda is particularly unpopular, according to a poll by Mainichi. Only 24 per cent of respondents approve of Fukuda’s appointed cabinet, down 22 points since October 2007.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The administration of Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda is particularly unpopular, according to a poll by Mainichi. Only 24 per cent of respondents approve of Fukuda’s appointed cabinet, down 22 points since October 2007.

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.

In May 2007, Japan’s Social Insurance Agency (SIA) revealed it cannot identify close to 50 million payment records. On Apr. 7, DPJ lawmaker Masamitsu Naito criticized the government’s record on the issue, saying, "If you say the problem has been settled even though the government failed to identify 40 per cent (of the unidentified pension records), it’s deceitful and a violation of your pledge."

Fukuda declared: "We gave the wrong impression last summer that the pension problem would be completely settled (by the end of March)."

Polling Data

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

	Apr. 2008	Oct. 2007
Approve	24%	46%
Disapprove	57%	30%

Source: Mainichi
Methodology: Interviews to 1,061 Japanese adults, conducted on Apr. 5 and Apr. 6, 2008. No margin of error was provided.