TOKYO, Mar. 28, 2010 (Kyodo News International) -- The approval rating for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet dropped to 36 percent in the latest poll, down 7 percentage points from the previous survey in February, The Nikkei business daily reported Monday.
The disapproval rating rose 8 points to 57 percent, according to the nationwide telephone survey conducted between Friday and Sunday on a randomly selected 1,502 households with eligible voters. Of them, 954, or 63.5 percent, responded.
In the poll, 46 percent opposed Hatoyama's intention of not raising the sales tax, which is currently set at 5 percent, until the fall of 2013, exceeding the 43 percent who expressed support for the idea.
The survey also showed 60 percent of respondents will take into account the political fund donation scandals involving Hatoyama and Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, when they cast their votes in the House of Councillors election in July, against 32 percent who said they would not consider it.
The approval rating for the DPJ fell 8 points to 33 percent.
