May 30 08:50 AM US/Eastern
(AP) - TOKYO, May 30 (Kyodo) — Public support for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet dropped to 19.1 percent, down 1.6 percentage points from a month earlier, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday, following the government's announcement of a plan to relocate a key U.S. military base within Okinawa Prefecture.
The latest telephone poll, conducted Saturday and Sunday, also showed 51.2 percent said Hatoyama should resign as prime minister as he failed to resolve the base row in a way he promised he would, while 44.4 percent said he does not need to resign.
The approval rating for Hatoyama's Cabinet fell below the 20 percent line for the first time in Kyodo News polls, dealing a blow to Hatoyama and his government ahead of the upper house election this summer. The rating, which stood at 72.0 percent immediately after the Sept. 16 launch of the government, tumbled to 36.3 percent in early March and further declined to 20.7 percent in late April.
The poll also showed that the major opposition Liberal Democratic Party now has more supporters than the ruling Democratic Party of Japan for the first time since the DPJ took power.
When asked which political party they plan to vote for in the proportional representation section of the looming House of Councilors election, 20.9 percent named the LDP, up 1.0 point from the previous poll in late April, while 19.9 percent chose the DPJ, down 3.5 points.
The same trend was seen in a question asking which party they support, with 21.9 percent naming the LDP, up 3.2 points, while 20.5 percent selected the DPJ, down 3.6 points.
The two major parties were followed by Your Party, which garnered support from 10.5 percent, the Social Democratic Party with 4.5 percent, New Komeito with 4.4 percent, and the Japanese Communist Party with 2.0 percent. But the largest single group of 27.5 percent said they do not have any party they support.
In the latest poll, 73.2 percent disapproved of the Cabinet, up 8.8 points. Of them, 36.2 percent attributed it to Hatoyama's lack of leadership and 25.1 percent cited their lack of trust in him.
Over Hatoyama's decision to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, 66.1 percent said they do not support the plan while 25.4 percent favored it.
Hatoyama has said he would resolve the base row by the end of May by coming up with a relocation plan that can win approval from people in Okinawa, the DPJ's coalition partners and the United States. But the government announced the relocation policy on Friday after striking a deal only with Washington.
His dismissal of SDP leader Mizuho Fukushima as consumer affairs minister over her opposition to the relocation plan was supported by 51.4 percent, while 40.8 percent said
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