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Hashimato gains support

TOKYO: Support for Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto rose to 52 percent in May, topping 50 percent for the first time since his January inauguration, a newspaper poll published on Wednesday found.

The mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said its poll showed Hashimoto's higher ratings were due to diminished public anger at his government's unpopular plan to use public funds to wind up failed housing loan companies.

The 52.0 percent approval rating for May was 3.6 percentage points up on a similar poll of 3,000 eligible voters taken a month earlier, the newspaper said.

Support for Hashimoto stood at 56.9 percent in January when he assumed the prime minister's post atop a coalition of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the tiny Sakigake party.

Among ruling parties, the LDP saw its support rise by 2.1 points over April to 35.2 percent, while that for the SDP plunged to an all-time low of 3.9 percent.

Shinshinto (New Frontier Party), the main opposition party, garnered support of 9.1 percent, a slight increase over April, the Yomiuri said.

Disapproval of the cabinet's scheme to liquidate the failed housing loan firms, the focus of parliamentary wrangling, fell to 54 percent from 58 percent in April, the poll found.

Political analysts say that continuing public opposition to the liquidation plan is a key reason for Hashimoto's reluctance to call early general elections, which must be held by mid-1997.-Reuter