ID :
34575
Tue, 12/09/2008 - 14:16
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/34575
The shortlink copeid
Aso sees plunge in Cabinet approval rating as 'very severe'+
TOKYO, Dec. 8 Kyodo - Prime Minister Taro Aso said Monday he accepts the plummet in the approval rating for his Cabinet as a ''very severe'' situation and vowed to promote economy-boosting measures.
''They are very severe figures. I'll accept them as an assessment of me,'' Aso
told reporters. ''I think they indicate criticism that we are not living up
enough to expectations about measures to address the slumping economy and the
deteriorating job situation.''
Aso also said he is the person responsible for the plunge in approval.
According to a Kyodo News survey, the approval rating for Aso's Cabinet plunged
to 25.5 percent as of this weekend, below the 30 percent line into a level
considered critical in terms of political survival. Other major news
organizations also reported similar figures on Monday.
On calls by opposition parties to dissolve the lower house for a general
election, Aso said his stance of prioritizing policies over a political
showdown remains unchanged.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura
said the falling approval rating can be perceived as ''spurs'' being applied by
the public.
''We will accept the result with humility,'' Kawamura said, adding that the
government is facing the severe situation of a financial crisis and a divided
Diet, whose upper house is under the control of the opposition bloc.
Asked whether the prime minister's authority to dissolve the House of
Representatives could be hampered by such low support rates, Kawamura said,
''The right to dissolve (the lower house) will not be constrained by such
things.''
''We'd like to deepen public support and understanding...by promoting the Aso
Cabinet's policies steadily step by step,'' Kawamura said. He said the
government is working to compile a second extra budget and fiscal 2009 budget.
''As I am one of the main members of a team set up by Aso, who has held up
economic recovery as the primary goal, I regard (the result) seriously, taking
it as a call to make utmost efforts to improve the economy and living
standards,'' Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama told reporters,
meanwhile, that the surveys by the news agencies show public expectations of a
realignment in political alliances.
''I think a realignment could happen'' in line with public opinion, Hatoyama said.
From the opposition bloc, Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the Democratic
Party of Japan, said, 'The public is posing the case of no-confidence. There is
still the possibility that the Aso Cabinet could resign en masse by the end of
this year.''
Hatoyama again called for the dissolution of the lower house for a general
election, saying the public's irritation over the issue at a time of political
vacuum when the government is doing nothing ''has come to an extreme.''
==Kyodo
2008-12-08 22:16:25
''They are very severe figures. I'll accept them as an assessment of me,'' Aso
told reporters. ''I think they indicate criticism that we are not living up
enough to expectations about measures to address the slumping economy and the
deteriorating job situation.''
Aso also said he is the person responsible for the plunge in approval.
According to a Kyodo News survey, the approval rating for Aso's Cabinet plunged
to 25.5 percent as of this weekend, below the 30 percent line into a level
considered critical in terms of political survival. Other major news
organizations also reported similar figures on Monday.
On calls by opposition parties to dissolve the lower house for a general
election, Aso said his stance of prioritizing policies over a political
showdown remains unchanged.
At a news conference earlier in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura
said the falling approval rating can be perceived as ''spurs'' being applied by
the public.
''We will accept the result with humility,'' Kawamura said, adding that the
government is facing the severe situation of a financial crisis and a divided
Diet, whose upper house is under the control of the opposition bloc.
Asked whether the prime minister's authority to dissolve the House of
Representatives could be hampered by such low support rates, Kawamura said,
''The right to dissolve (the lower house) will not be constrained by such
things.''
''We'd like to deepen public support and understanding...by promoting the Aso
Cabinet's policies steadily step by step,'' Kawamura said. He said the
government is working to compile a second extra budget and fiscal 2009 budget.
''As I am one of the main members of a team set up by Aso, who has held up
economic recovery as the primary goal, I regard (the result) seriously, taking
it as a call to make utmost efforts to improve the economy and living
standards,'' Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said.
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kunio Hatoyama told reporters,
meanwhile, that the surveys by the news agencies show public expectations of a
realignment in political alliances.
''I think a realignment could happen'' in line with public opinion, Hatoyama said.
From the opposition bloc, Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the Democratic
Party of Japan, said, 'The public is posing the case of no-confidence. There is
still the possibility that the Aso Cabinet could resign en masse by the end of
this year.''
Hatoyama again called for the dissolution of the lower house for a general
election, saying the public's irritation over the issue at a time of political
vacuum when the government is doing nothing ''has come to an extreme.''
==Kyodo
2008-12-08 22:16:25
