Asahi : 48% say Koizumi blundering on China

The Asahi Shimbun 05/31/2005

Nearly half the population is dissatisfied with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's handling of the crisis with China that has brought bilateral relations to their lowest ebb in decades, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed Monday.

The newspaper contacted eligible voters at random by telephone over the weekend and received 1,876 valid responses, representing 53 percent of those polled. Forty-eight percent of respondents said they ``disapproved'' of Koizumi's stance toward China, while 35 percent backed him on the issue.

Already strained ties with China have been exacerbated by Koizumi's insistence on continuing to make annual visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals along with the nation's war dead.

Asked how they felt about Koizumi visiting the Tokyo shrine, 49 percent replied he should stop, far exceeding the 39 percent who support his stance on the issue.

The poll showed that voters are not only critical of their prime minister and his way of dealing with Beijing, but remain equally disapproving of China and its stance toward Japan.

Only 37 percent said they could identify with China's stand on the Yasukuni issue. More than half of the respondents-51 percent-said China's attitude was ``incomprehensible.''

The poll results suggest Japanese voters are at a loss over how relations with Japan's biggest trading partner can be put back on a firmer footing. With neither country showing signs of backing down, it would appear that Japanese voters are unable to sympathize with either side.

Despite strong disapproval for his actions, the number of Koizumi supporters is rising. The approval rating for the Koizumi Cabinet climbed to 45 percent, showing a steady recovery from March, when both support and nonsupport rates were at 40 percent.

(IHT/Asahi: May 31,2005)