Japan Premier Aso’s Approval Rating Falls Below 20%, Jiji Says

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s approval rating fell below 20 percent for the first time, evidence his efforts to rekindle economic growth aren’t winning over the public.

Support for Aso plunged to 16.7 percent from 38.8 percent last month, Jiji press reported today. The prime minister’s disapproval rating rose to 64.7 percent from 36.5 percent in the nationwide survey of 2,000 people conducted Dec. 12-15.

The poll is at least the fourth to show Aso’s approval falling below that of his two predecessors. Yasuo Fukuda had 28.3 percent support before he resigned in September. Shinzo Abe’s approval rating fell to 27.2 percent in August 2007 before he left office the following month.

“The situation is tough,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters in Tokyo, in response to a question about the drop. “We hope to win the public’s understanding by steadily implementing policies.”

Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa had 34.8 percent backing in today’s Jiji poll to become the next prime minister compared with 23.9 percent who prefer Aso, who took office in September. None of the surveys provided a margin of error.

Aso announced his second economic stimulus package Dec. 12, a plan to allocate 10 trillion yen ($113 billion) to buoy the world’s second-largest economy. The amount includes 6 trillion yen already announced in October. Aso hasn’t submitted a plan to parliament to fund the measures.

Japan’s gross domestic product contracted at an annual 1.8 percent pace in the third quarter.

Yoshiro Mori, who was prime minister until April, 2001, had an approval rating of 8.6 percent in February before he left office, according to nationwide Yomiuri survey of 1,953 people.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sachiko Sakamaki in Tokyo at ssakamaki1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net