People-betraying policies accelerate a decline in cabinet approval rating

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

People-betraying policies accelerate a decline in cabinet approval rating

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The approval rating of the Fukuda Cabinet has declined to below 20 percent in opinion polls conducted by newspapers and TV news networks.

In earlier surveys, more than 60 percent of the respondents said they did not support the Fukuda Cabinet and the rate now is continuing to rise to almost 80 percent. This political fallout is a consequence of the government policy of turning its back on the needs of the public. It forcibly introduced the new medical system that abandons elderly people aged 75 and over; raised taxes on gasoline, and railroaded through a bill to allow road-related tax revenues to be earmarked for the construction of unnecessary roads by using the ruling parties’ two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives to override a House of Councilors decision.

The support rate of below 20 percent is the lowest since Mori Yoshiro’s Cabinet that collapsed immediately before the House of Councilors election in 2001. Judging from this extremely low support rate, the present Cabinet led by Prime Minister Fukuda Yasuo is in the twilight of its tenure.

For example, in surveys on the new medical system introduced in April, 74 percent of the respondents said, “it’s no good” in a Nikkei survey. The rates were 77 percent in a Mainichi Newspapers poll, and 75 percent in a JNN (TV network news) poll. A Kyodo News survey shows that 46.5 percent calls for the system to be abolished and 62 percent in ANN (TV network news) survey. In an NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) survey, 33 percent said the new system should be “abolished” and 54 percent called for it to be “reviewed”.

Prime Minister Fukuda came to power to replace Abe Shinzo, who resigned his job as prime minister following the LDP’s devastating defeat in the 2007 House of Councilors election. It is obvious that Fukuda’s predecessors, Koizumi and Abe, had failed in the public eye due to their extreme subservience to the United States as well as their “structural reform” policy. Fukuda has shown neither an intention nor the power to change these policies since he took office eight months ago.

What is more, Fukuda began early this year to force the public to pay more for various measures, including the new medical system. It also rammed through bills in the House of Representatives by overriding House of Councilors rejections to continue deploying the Self-Defense Forces to the Indian Ocean, restore the provisional higher-rate taxes on gasoline that had been abolished in April, and to use the gasoline tax revenues as special resources for the construction of unnecessary roads.

The Fukuda Cabinet is digging its own grave after hurting the public well-being with undemocratic policies using the force of numbers in compete disregard of public criticism. - Akahata, May 16, 2008