‘Japanese have high hopes for new Premier’

Japanese voters spoken great expectations for the new Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, a strengthening of support for the ruling Party of Japan (DPJ), with 15.6 percent, a survey by Kyodo News.

Some 57.6 percent said they had positive prospect for the CAN, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister named prime minister Friday to succeed unpopular leader Yukio Hatoyama. But 37.2 percent said they had no hopes for the new prime minister, according to study published in the weekend. Support rate for DPJ rose 15.6 percent from 20.5 percent to 36.1 percent from a previous survey conducted just before Hatoyama announced his resignation as prime minister on Wednesday.

Support for the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which used to rule Japan in nearly 50 years was 20.8 percent. Asked which party they would vote for in the upcoming Upper House election expected in late July, 32.6 percent said that they would give their vote to the DPJ, up 12.7 percent from the previous poll, while 23.4 percent said that they would cast their ballots for the LDP, up 2.5 points.

The survey also showed that 43.2 percent said the CAN should emphasize the economic and employment measures and 35.3 percent said their priority should be placed on administrative and fiscal reforms. The survey was conducted Friday and Saturday by Kyodo News, by calling randomly selected eligible voters in 1452 households, of which 1026 voters gave valid answers.DPA TK im 070357 GMT 10 June.