Asia-Pacific
Hatoyama's ratings dip unlikely to strain ties
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-20 09:32
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Beijing - Slumping support for Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is unlikely to affect the recent thaw in China-Japan ties, observers said on Monday.
A poll conducted by the Tokyo-based Jiji Press put Hatoyama's approval ratings at 23.7 percent, a sharp 7.2 percent fall from March.
This has put pressure on the fate of his seven-month-old cabinet, according to Kyodo News Agency.
The poll, published on Friday, also showed that Hatoyama's cabinet now had a disapproval rating of 56.5 percent, up 8 percent from March.
The plummeting support for the government is also likely to negatively impact a mid-year election, according to Jiji Press.
"Sino-Japanese ties depend on the overall situation between the two countries, and individuals or parties cannot affect it," said Huo Jiangang, a scholar at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
Ties have been "prudently optimistic" since Hatoyama assumed office last September.
"Largely, the current Japanese government holds a positive attitude towards China," said Feng Zhaokui, former deputy head of the Institute of Japan Studies, at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The results of this August's Senate elections are "hard to predict", and even if the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) loses, relations are unlikely to be strained, Huo said.
"Even if the DPJ fortunes are seen to be sliding now, it may still win in the August poll," Feng said, adding the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) too is in the throes of an internal split.
There is speculation within Japan that Hatoyama may have to resign if he fails to settle the Futenma air base relocation dispute by the end of May, a deadline which he himself had set. "The Japanese media has been bad-mouthing Hatoyama of late," Huo said. "However, it is still too early to predict whether he would resign or not."
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano also said on Monday that he did not expect Hatoyama to be compelled to resign.
Hatoyama's "fate" may not be decided by outside forces, but by conflicts within the DPJ, said Liu Jiangyong, a senior Asia-Pacific studies scholar at Tsinghua University.
Former health minister Yoichi Masuzoe of the LDP is the most favored to be Japan's prime minister, with a support rate of 21.5 percent, the Jiji Press poll showed. Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan follows with an approval rating of 7.9 percent.
The poll comes just after Hatoyama's low-key visit to the United States.
Associated Press contributed to the story.
(China Daily 04/20/2010 page11)
