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Japan voters want PM to go as no-confidence vote looms

30 May 2011 13:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA. Seventy percent of Japanese voters want to get rid of Prime Minister Naoto Kan, a survey showed Monday, marking more bad news for the unpopular government chief likely to face a no-confidence vote as early as this week, APA reports citing Reuters.

Kan is under fire for his handling of the humanitarian aid to victims of an earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan’s northeast on March 11 and the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years triggered by the disaster.

Japan’s biggest opposition Liberal Democratic Party said last week it would submit a no-confidence motion to parliament to force Kan to resign or call a snap election.

The motion could be submitted as early as this week, a senior LDP lawmaker said Sunday and all opposition parties, except for tiny Social Democratic Party, have said they will back it.

Political analysts say, however, Kan stands a good chance of surviving the vote as it remains doubtful whether the LDP could win over enough disaffected members of Kan’s own Democratic Party for the motion to pass. More than 70 out of more than 300 Democrats would have to defect to secure passage.

"I doubt it will pass," said Sophia University professor Koichi Nakano. "It is not meant to be a final blow against Kan, but an attempt to drive a wedge in the DPJ deeper and hope that will lead to something."

The survey by Nikkei business daily suggested the public would not be too disappointed if Kan survived the challenge.

While nearly three quarters of those polled said the government had done a poor job of tackling the crisis at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, nearly half thought this was not the right time for a change at the top and Kan should remain through the initial stage of dealing with the crisis.

That could mean that Kan staying into next year, given doubts over whether Tokyo Electric Power, the plant’s operator, can stabilize the facility by January as planned. Kyodo news agency quoted a senior official at the utility as saying there could be a major delay in work.