More Numbers in Support of the Cabinet and the Parties

This morning's newspaper poll numbers, from Shin Hodo 2001 (the Sunday news program of Fuji Television) and Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) replicate the numbers found in yesterday's poll.

Do you support the cabinet of Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko?

Shin Hodo 2001

Support 70.8%
Do Not Support 21.8%

TBS

Support 66.5%
Do Not Support 30.1%

Though the TBS polls find a very high level of support for the Noda Cabinet (the 6th highest since 1994) it finds, as did The Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi polls of yesterday, a steady decline in the support numbers for the successive prime ministers of Democratic Party of Japan-led governments.

In the suddenly extremely important support numbers for the parties, the new polls find the same results as the polls printed yesterday: that the DPJ has pulled ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party, after trailing the LDP since the late spring:

Which party do you support? (previous month's reading in brackets)

Shin Hodo 2001

DPJ 25% [20%]
LDP 24% [24%]

TBS

DPJ 22.7% [14.4%]
LDP 18.8% [18.3%]
New Komeito 2.6 [3.0%]
Your Party 2.2% [-]
I do not support any party 48.9% [58.1%]

Among the questions the TBS pollsters asked their respondents is what level of cooperation they want between the major parties as regards the passage of legislation. While a small percentage (17%) want a grand coalition government, the vast majority (72%) want the DPJ and the LDP to cooperate and/or link up without going through with a full coalition arrangement.

These numbers are likely to cause the LDP to behave as if it has a split personality. It will likely be very circumspect as regards legislation, cooperating with the DPJ lest the LDP be tarred with the brush of non-cooperation. At the same time, it will try to make political hay out of Defense Minister Ichikawa Yasuo's confession of his own shortcomings and the PM's political funding group having received donations from foreign nationals.

As to the problems of foreign donations that have so far hit Maehara Seiji, Kan Naoto and now Prime Minister Noda, the morning "Asazuba!" program pointed out an important difference between the two main parties. The LDP still receives the bulk of its donations from corporations, though these donations have dropped off sharply since the party was ousted from power. These donations are relatively easy to track as to their national origins (though not so easy, it should be noted, to track as regards their yakuza connections). The bulk of the DPJ's political funds come in the form of donations from private individuals, which leaves the party open to accepting donations from persons with Japanese names but foreign passports.