6 percent of Japanese want Mori as next PM, newspaper poll shows

November 7, 2000
Web posted at: 8:52 AM HKT (0052 GMT)

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was dealt a fresh blow on Tuesday by a public opinion poll showing only 6 percent of voters want him to be Japan's next prime minister.

Asked by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun financial daily who they next want to see in the nation's top political post, only 6.1 percent of respondents chose Mori, down from 8.6 percent in the previous June poll.

According to a related poll, published on the paper's home page on Monday, the number of voters who disapprove of Mori shot up to 71.5 percent, compared with 56.6 percent in a September survey, while support dipped to 19.6 percent.

Recent polls have shown Mori's popularity sagging below 20 percent, which domestic media flagged as a make-or-break point, noting that other prime ministers in recent history whose popularity fell below that mark were forced to resign.

Topping the Nihon Keizai poll's list of preferences for prime minister was Takako Doi, the forceful head of the opposition Social Democratic Party, who is widely respected despite her party's faltering fortunes. She was the choice of 12.1 percent, up from 10.8 percent in June, although her party claimed the support of only 6.3 percent.

Doi was followed closely by Naoto Kan, secretary-general of the Democratic Party, the largest opposition party, with 11.4 percent against 9.4 percent in June.

Another politician whose fortunes rose was Koichi Kato, a would-be reformer in Mori's Liberal Democratic Party and widely seen as a possible challenger to Mori for the top post. He took third place with 9.0 percent, up from 7.1 percent.

Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party, fared poorly, slipping to 5 percent from 10.6 percent in June.

Mori, whose support has been steadily whittled away by a succession of verbal blunders and scandals since he took office in April, suffered a particularly severe blow two weeks ago when a close confidant, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa, resigned in response to a widening series of scandals.

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