Nearly 80 percent of Japanese voters are unhappy with both the country’s ruling and main opposition political parties, a newspaper survey published yesterday said amid speculation elections will be held next month.
The poll by Japan’s top-selling Yomiuri Shimbun found 78 percent of respondents were not happy with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso heads the party, which has governed Japan for all but a 10-month stretch since it was founded in 1955.
The survey also found that 79 percent of respondents to the questionnaire were not happy with the country’s biggest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), either.
PHOTO: AP
Since Aso took office last month media attention has been focused on when the prime minister will dissolve the lower house of parliament and hold general elections. Newspapers have predicted snap polls could take place late next month.
ASO OK
The Yomiuri survey said 57 percent of respondents favored Aso for prime minister. Only 26 percent said they wanted Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ leader, for the top job.
The poll was conducted by face-to-face interviews nationwide this month with 3,000 eligible voters. Of those, 1,787 people, or 59.6 percent, responded, the Yomiuri said.
The paper provided no margin of error, but a survey of that size would generally have a margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
AFGHANISTAN
Meanwhile, Aso said yesterday that Japan must keep backing the US-led “war on terror” and reiterated his support for his country’s controversial naval mission off Afghanistan.
“We will continue to proactively engage in international peace activities, such as the war on terror,” Aso told Japanese soldiers during a ceremonial review of the air force.
“Many nations, despite having seen casualties, are preparing to increase their engagement with Afghanistan,” he said.
“It is not a choice for us to withdraw from our ongoing activities,” Aso said.
Japan has provided naval fuel and other logistical support in the Indian Ocean to US-led forces operating in Afghanistan.
The current naval mission is set to expire in January, and Aso is pushing to extend it.
Japan’s opposition, which controls the upper house of parliament, forced a temporary halt to the operation last year, arguing the officially pacifist country should not take part in “American wars.”
Japan was forced to renounce the right to wage war in its pacifist Constitution after its defeat in World War II.
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