Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Monday rejected calls for his resignation despite a further dive in his Cabinet's dismal support rate and the fracturing of the ruling coalition.
The Cabinet's support rate fell to a new low of 17 percent, underscoring voter discontent over the relocation issue concerning the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, a weekend survey by The Asahi Shimbun showed.
Only 27 percent of voters polled Saturday and Sunday approved of the government's decision to keep the Futenma air station within Okinawa Prefecture, to an offshore site of Henoko in Nago. Fifty-seven percent disapproved of the decision.
The support rate was 4 points lower than in the previous survey May 15-16 and the first to dip below 20 percent since Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan took power last September. The nonsupport rate was 70 percent, up from 64 percent in the previous survey.
When Hatoyama formed his Cabinet, it received a support rate of 71 percent.
DPJ members are flustered over the support rate tailspin and the Social Democratic Party's decision to leave the ruling coalition over the Futenma issue. Some are calling for Hatoyama to resign.
The sense of urgency is particularly sharp among Upper House members whose seats will be contested in this summer's election.
"We cannot fight the election under Hatoyama," one lawmaker said.
But the double shocks of the SDP departure and the dismal support ratings will not likely lead to the DPJ's immediate abandonment of Hatoyama.
The prime minister met briefly with DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa and Azuma Koshiishi, head of the DPJ's Upper House caucus. They agreed to meet again Tuesday to discuss strategy for the Upper House election.
At a later meeting of DPJ executives that Hatoyama did not attend, it was agreed that the issue would be left to Ozawa and Koshiishi.
During that meeting, Toshio Ogawa, chairman of the DPJ's Public Relations Committee, said: "We cannot compete in the Upper House election with the present party leadership. The situation is extremely grave."
Another executive said that because Koshiishi empathizes with those Upper House members who will be up for election this summer, he feels the need to pass on their concerns to Hatoyama when the two men meet.
The key is held by party kingpin Ozawa, who has backed Hatoyama and is noted for his expertise in election campaigns, sources say.
Since the prime minister's resignation would lead to Ozawa's own resignation, many DPJ lawmakers are unwilling to take aggressive action against Hatoyama.
But even among the respondents who supported the DPJ in the latest poll, only 58 percent approved his Cabinet.
Hatoyama's Cabinet is the third in a row to see its support rate fall below 20 percent. The administration headed by Yasuo Fukuda dropped to 19 percent, while the one led by Taro Aso fared worse, sinking to 13 percent. Both Liberal Democratic Party prime ministers stepped down a few months after those rates were announced.
Hatoyama said he regretted the SDP's departure over differences in security policy. He also took it upon himself to improve the support rate.
"There is no way other than to tide it over with a firm resolve. I will try to regain strong politics for the people," he said.
The latest telephone poll received 1,106 valid responses.
Only 21 percent of the respondents supported the DPJ, down from 24 percent in the previous poll and less than half of the peak of 46 percent since the change of power.
The LDP as the main opposition party has done little to capitalize on Hatoyama's sliding ratings; the party's support rate remained stuck at 15 percent.
But the DPJ has lost its edge in terms of voters' choice for the nationwide proportional representation if the Upper House election were held now.
Both parties were tied at 20 percent. In the previous poll, 24 percent of voters picked the DPJ while 19 percent chose the LDP.
Voters who said they had not yet decided which party or candidate to vote for increased to 41 percent, from 38 percent.
Asked whether they thought Hatoyama kept his promise to settle the Futenma issue by the end of May, 13 percent said yes, against 78 percent who answered in the negative.