Japan new PM noda

KAPTAAN

Prime VIP
Two-thirds of
Japanese voters back new Prime
Minister Yoshihiko Noda as his
call for unity within the ruling
party and conciliatory stance
toward the opposition raised
hopes for speedy policy
implementation, newspaper polls
showed on Sunday.
That was a sharp turnaround
from his predecessor Naoto Kan,
who saw his support fall below
20 percent after suffering a
political stalemate due to rebels
within his Democratic Party and a
divided parliament, where the
opposition controls the upper
chamber and can block bills.
Noda, a fiscal hawk, became
Japan's sixth premier in five years
last week, pledging to quickly
tackle fiscal reforms to rein in
huge public debt -- now twice the
size of the country's $5 trillion
economy -- but with an eye on
growth.
Support for the Noda government
was 67 percent, according to a
poll by the Nikkei business daily,
compared with 19 percent for
Kan's cabinet in the newspaper's
previous survey conducted in late
July.
Polls by three other major
newspapers, the Yomiuri,
Mainichi and Asahi, showed that
support for Noda, who is tasked
to forge a new energy policy
while ending a radiation crisis
caused by a deadly tsunami in
March, came to 65 percent, 56
percent and 53 percent,
respectively. Another poll by
Kyodo news agency showed
similar results on Saturday.
In the Nikkei survey, 36 percent
of those polled said they support
Noda's Democratic Party. That
compares with 30 percent in
favour of the main opposition
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP),
boding well for the DPJ's fortunes
in the next election.
A lower house election is not
mandated until late 2013 and
Noda on Friday ruled out a snap
election for now.
In the previous Nikkei poll in July,
32 percent of those polled
supported the LDP, compared
with 25 percent for the ruling
Democratic Party.
 
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