Cabinet approval rate still high at 71.1%
Selasa, 26 Maret 2013 01:09
(TOKYO-Kyodo) The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remains high at 71.1 percent, down 1.7 percentage points from the previous poll, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
It was the second time that the Cabinet approval rating has topped 70 percent since Abe's Liberal Democratic Party came to power in December.
The survey, conducted over the weekend, showed 62.7 percent of respondents support Abe's decision for Japan to enter negotiations for the U.S.-led Trans Pacific Partnership free trade pact, while 29.5 percent said they do not approve.
It also showed 71.8 percent believe Tokyo should continue to participate in the TPP talks until Japan's argument regarding exemptions to tariff elimination related to some farm products is accepted.
Farmers remain opposed to Japan's participation in the TPP negotiations as it is feared the free trade framework could lead to an influx of cheap agricultural imports, but Abe has promised to protect the country's farming and food.
The telephone survey, to which 1,015 eligible voters responded, showed that 71.1 percent support the government's so-called Abenomics economic policies featuring bold monetary easing, far exceeding the 22.7 percent who do not.
Over the planned transfer of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, 55.5 percent of the respondents supported the government's recent moves, including its submission of a land reclamation application to the prefectural government for the relocation, while 37.6 percent did not.
The government submitted the application on Friday as part of efforts to proceed with the long-stalled relocation of the Futenma base from a crowded residential district in Ginowan to the less populated Henoko coastal area of Nago, in line with a bilateral agreement.
Whether Abe's government can move forward with the relocation anytime soon remains uncertain, as Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima as well as many other local leaders and residents are staunchly opposed to relocating the base within the southernmost island prefecture.
On the planned removal of the ban on online election campaigning, 57.8 percent said it would increase voter turnout, compared with 35.2 percent who do not think so.
Asked which party they will vote for in the proportional representation section of the upcoming House of Councillors election in the summer, 44.1 percent said they will vote for the LDP, up 2.4 points from the previous survey, while the opposition Japan Restoration Party and the Democratic Party of Japan secured 8.2 percent and 6.0 percent support, respectively.
By party, the LDP secured 46.9 percent support, unchanged from the previous survey, the Japan Restoration Party 7.1 percent, down 1.2 points, and the DPJ 6.3 percent, up 0.3 point.
Among smaller parties, Your Party garnered 4.0 percent support, the New Komeito party, the LDP's ruling coalition partner, 3.8 percent, the Japanese Communist Party 2.1 percent and the Social Democratic Party 1.1 percent, while 27.2 percent respondents said they do not support a party.
On Abe's push to ease the process for amending the Constitution, 48.1 percent said they support it, while 40.2 percent said they do not.
Currently an initiative to revise the Constitution must be backed by at least two-thirds of all members of each house of parliament. The LDP is trying to ease the requirement to "half" of all members in each chamber.