Japan PM ratings slide

Lower House to pass budget:

JAPAN: Support for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s Government has dropped to 27 percent, the lowest since he took office in June, with voters unhappy over his handling of diplomatic rows with China and Russia, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The continued slide in support for Kan, Japan’s fifth leader in three years, is complicating the government’s efforts to enact an $53 billion extra budget to shore up the economy.

Kan’s ratings have also been eroded by a funding scandal dogging ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, who faces indictment over the affair.

Ozawa has denied any wrongdoing. Still, 60 percent of respondents in the Asahi newspaper’s survey said there was no need for a snap election.

Tokyo’s relations with Beijing have chilled since September when Japan detained the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that collided with two of its patrol vessels off disputed islands.

The prime minister has been under fire domestically for seeming to cave into Beijing’s demands to free the skipper.

Adding to Kan’s headaches, this month’s visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to another disputed island, north of Japan, also ignited long-simmering tensions.

The Asahi newspaper’s poll showed 73 percent of respondents are not satisfied with Kan’s handling of the territorial dispute over the islets with Russia, while 77 percent said they were unhappy with the Kan Government’s diplomacy in general. The $53 billion extra budget for the year to March is expected to pass in the powerful lower house on Tuesday.

Budget bills become law within 30 days of approval by the lower house even if rejected by the upper house.

Opposition parties, which control the less powerful upper chamber, could delay the process but would risk public ire if they drag things out too long. The Government hopes the extra budget will ease the pain from the yen’s rise and deflation.

It is intended to support job seekers and families with children, while promoting subsidies for home renovations and electronics that improve energy efficiency.

Tokyo, Tuesday, Reuters