Japan PM's camp avoids dual loss in local polls

TOKYO, Feb 4 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling camp avoided a nasty double loss in local elections today, but a survey showed his support rates had slipped again after his health minister called women ''birth giving machines''.

The two local contests had been seen as a test of the impact on voters of Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa's gaffe, which has outraged many ordinary Japanese and sparked opposition calls for his resignation.

Opposition candidate Kenji Kitahashi won the race for mayor of Kitakyushu City in southern Japan , while Governor Masaaki Kanda was reelected in Aichi with the support of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party and its junior coalition partner, media said.

The furore over Yanagisawa's remark was just the latest headache for Abe, 52, whose leadership has come under question ahead of upper house elections in July.

Support for Abe has slipped to about 40 per cent, almost 25 points below the level when he took office in September, a weekend survey released on Sunday by Kyodo news agency showed.

For the first time, the percentage of voters who disapproved of his cabinet was higher than those who approved, while nearly 59 per per cent of respondents wanted Yanagisawa to step down.

Almost 42 per cent of female respondents disapproved of Abe's administration, compared to 39 percent who backed him -- a potentially disturbing trend since women have been among the soft-spoken, well-dressed leader's key supporters.

Abe has stood by Yanagisawa, but analysts had predicted that calls for the minister's resignation would grow within the ruling camp if its candidates had lost both of today's polls.

ANOTHER HEADACHE? Another potential problem for Abe emerged today when media quoted Foreign Minister Taro Aso as criticising US policy in Iraq, calling its occupation strategy ''immature''.

The remarks could damage ties with Washington following several controversial comments by the defence minister and ahead of US Vice President Dick Cheney's February. 20-22 visit to Japan.

''Cabinet ministers have freedom of speech, but then again, they do not. I would like everyone to be on their guard and more careful,'' Toranosuke Katayama, an upper house LDP heavyweight, said on a Sunday morning TV talk show.

Leaders of the Democrats and other smaller parties, who boycotted a budget debate in the lower house last week, were set to discuss early in the week whether to stick with that strategy.

On January. 27, Yanagisawa told ruling party supporters in a speech touching on Japan's low birthrate: ''Because the number of birth-giving machines and devices is fixed, all we can ask for is for them to do their best per head.'' He has repeatedly apologised, but refused to resign.

LDP policy chief Shoichi Nakagawa said earlier today that while he wanted the health minister to stay in office, it was up to Abe and Yanagisawa to decide on the minister's future.

Since taking office in September, Abe has seen a cabinet minister resign for misreporting political funds and a point man on tax reform quit after reports he was living with a mistress in a government-subsidised apartment.

Media have reported that two other cabinet ministers were also involved in dubious reporting of political funds, although both have denied wrongdoing.

REUTERS MS PM2224