Support for Japan PM plunges to new low

Support for the cabinet of Japan's centre-left Prime Minister Naoto Kan has fallen six points to 21 percent, the lowest level since he took office half a year ago, a newspaper survey said Tuesday.

The poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun daily showed that the disapproval rating for Kan's government had shot up to 60 percent, eight percentage points higher than in a survey by the newspaper last month.

Kan has been under fire ever since he took the post in June, especially over foreign policy, including his handling of a territorial row with China.

But 57 percent of the more than 2,000 voters polled at the weekend said they wanted Kan to stay on as premier anyway -- a position the Asahi said was probably due to the absence of a strong alternative leader.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in August last year ousted the conservative Liberal Democrats in a landslide, ending their more than half century of almost uninterrupted rule in Japan.

The DPJ's first premier, Yukio Hatoyama, stepped down after less than nine months after his approval rating plunged below 20 percent, mainly over his mishandling of a row with Washington over a controversial US air base.

The DPJ has also been weakened by political funding scandals, including one involving veteran heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa, who has so far resisted a push for him to speak before a parliamentary ethics panel.

The Asahi poll showed that 83 percent of respondents disapproved of the way the DPJ has handled the scandal surrounding Ozawa, a long-time backroom fixer dubbed the "Shadow Shogun" of Japanese politics.

Nearly 70 percent said they believed Ozawa must face parliament to explain his position over the accusations of irregularities, which he denies.

The Asahi polled 2,019 voters on Saturday and Sunday.