From the October 2006 Monthly Survey on Japanese Political Awareness
December 2006
On September 26th, 52 year-old Shinzo Abe was nominated as the 90th Prime Minister of Japan. He is the first Prime Minister who was born after World War II. The Monthly Survey on Japanese Political Awareness conducted in October 2006 asked Japanese people whether they support the Abe Cabinet. As a result, 65% of the respondents answered “Yes” while 18% answered “No.”
Reasons cited by the people who supported the new Cabinet included “because he is trustworthy (32%)” and “because his Cabinet looks better than others (27%).” On the other hand, 40% of the people who was against the new Cabinet cited, “because I cannot see any hope in his policies” and 19% “because he does not belong to a party I support.”
When asked what they expect most from the Abe Cabinet, the highest portion of the respondents (30%) chose ”reform on pension system” followed by “economic measures (14%)” and “restoration of diplomacy with Asian countries (12%)”.
The poll also surveyed how the respondents evaluate the personnel reshuffle of the Cabinet and LDP executives. 56% of the respondents “appreciate it,” combining 6% “highly appreciating it” and 51% “appreciating it to some extent.” In the meanwhile, 32% “do not appreciate it,” combining 7% “not appreciating it at all“ and 25% “not appreciating it very much.”
Reasons cited by people who “support the Cabinet and LDP personnel reshuffle (highly + to some extent)” include “Policies will be developed smoothly because many of the members share similar ideas with Prime Minister Abe (46%)” and “because of the well-balanced mixture of young and veteran politicians.” On the contrary, reasons for “not appreciating the reshuffle (not at all + not very much) include “The policies might be biased because most of the members share similar ideas with Mr. Abe (43%)” and “Selection of the members looks like reward-oriented because many of them are those who supported Mr. Abe in the LDP presidential election (28%).”