Japan PM's support sinks, lowest since taking office

Tokyo, June 4: Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has fallen to its lowest level since he took office, dented by the suicide of a scandal-hit minister and government bungling of pension records, an opinion poll showed today.

The survey comes less than two months before a crucial upper house election, Abe's first ballot-box test since he became prime minister last September.

A weekend opinion poll by the Asahi newspaper found that approval for Abe's cabinet had slid to 30 per cent, down from 36 per cent a week earlier.

Nearly 70 per cent of voters were unhappy with Abe's handling of the controversy over Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who killed himself last week, just hours before he faced questioning in parliament over links to several political funding scandals.

Sixty-one per cent said their impression of his cabinet had worsened as a result.

Abe's ratings had already taken a beating before Matsuoka's suicide from voter anger at the government's failure to keep track of millions of premium payments, meaning retirees could get short-changed.

The ruling coalition pushed laws through the lower house of parliament last Friday to try to resolve the problem despite fierce resistance from the opposition, which has pledged to make the issue a major point of the July upper house election.

Seventy per cent of the respondents to the Asahi poll agreed with the opposition that the legislation had been pushed through without sufficient debate.

Loss of a majority in the upper house would not automatically force Abe to resign, but it would be likely to spark calls within the ruling camp for him to do so.

Reuters>