Support for Japan PM slips

JAPAN: Support for Japan’s government has fallen below 60 percent for the first time since taking office in September, a survey showed on Monday, as it struggles to craft an economic package and resolve a security feud with Washington.

Support for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s government, which came to power after trouncing the long-dominant Liberal Democrats in an August election, stood at 59 percent, down 4 points from last month’s survey and off initial highs of more than 70 percent, a Yomiuri newspaper survey showed.

Among those who said they do not back the cabinet, 27 percent cited Hatoyama’s lack of leadership, up 13 points from the previous survey, the daily said, a potentially ominous sign ahead of an upper house election in mid-2010.

Voter dissatisfaction with Hatoyama’s explanations of a political funding scandal also appear to be eating into his support, the newspaper said.

On Friday the government was forced to delay an agreement on an economic stimulus package, with a small party in the ruling coalition seeking more spending to keep a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy on track.

Hatoyama said on Monday the government would decide on the stimulus package that day but Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said separately that formal approval would be on Tuesday. The government is desperate to avoid a return to recession ahead of the upper house election.

The economy, mired in deflation and hit by a rising yen, is only just out of its worst recession since World War Two.

The ruling Democratic Party, also concerned about inflating a massive public debt that is already headed for 200 percent of GDP and faced with falling tax revenues, is seeking total fiscal spending of 7.1 trillion yen ($79 billion). That would comprise 4 trillion yen in immediate spending and 3 trillion yen in tax grants to local governments.

Tokyo, Monday, Reuters