A decision by Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese prime minister, to reinstate an unpopular tax on petrol has pushed his popularity to a new low of about 20 per cent, according to three polls published on Friday.
“Fukuda is like a boxer up against the ropes,” said Jeff Kingston, professor of Asian studies at Temple University. “His political fortunes have really sunk.”
The weak poll results follow a heavy defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic party in a by-election last weekend. Since Mr Fukuda came to power last September, he has struggled to pass legislation because the upper house, dominated by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, has blocked his every move.
In a poll published by the Asahi newspaper, 20 per cent of respondents said they supported Mr Fukuda, down five points in only 10 days. The Asahi poll also put the DPJ ahead of the LDP, with a support rate of 28 against 24.
A Nikkei newspaper poll put support for the prime minister at 21 per cent. One by Kyodo news agency showed his support dropping fractionally below 20 per cent for the first time.
Political analysts said there was little likelihood of Mr Fukuda stepping down in the short term, partly because he was not obliged to call a general election until September 2009.
Gerry Curtis, a Japan expert at Columbia University, said: “You know the one thing the LDP is not going to do is call a general election and the DPJ can’t make them. There’s no movement within the party to replace [Fukuda] so I think he’s just going to limp along.”
One scenario has him trying to build his support through the high-profile visit next week of Hu Jintao, China’s president, and by hosting the Group of Eight summit in July.
He could then seek a popular mandate by dissolving the lower house, although he would inevitably lose the two-thirds majority his party won when Junichiro Koizumi, a former prime minister, was at the height of his powers.
There have been some rumblings within Mr Fuk-uda’s own party, but no concerted call for him to resign. Mr Curtis said it was premature to write the prime minister off. “Who wants to take over now?,” said Mr Kingston, referring to the gridlocked parliament, the party’s unpopularity and the grim electoral mathematics.
