Forty-two percent of people said they believe Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is most suitable as the next Liberal Democratic Party president, while 36 percent picked former LDP Secretary General Shigeru Ishiba, according to a recent nationwide survey conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun.
The survey, conducted from Friday to Sunday, asked respondents who would be best suited to be the party's next leader among three lawmakers: Abe and Ishiba -- who have officially announced their candidacies in September's presidential election -- and Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiko Noda, who has expressed her intention to run in the election. Ten percent of respondents picked Noda.
Among respondents who said they support the LDP, 72 percent chose Abe, followed by Ishiba at 21 percent and Noda at 4 percent.
Asked why they picked their choices, with multiple answers allowed, the largest number of respondents said their choices were "better than the others."
Among those who selected Abe, the second reason was, "I can expect stable management of the administration," followed by, "I support [his] policies."
On the other hand, the second reason respondents picked Ishiba was, "I support [his] political ideals," followed by, "I can trust [his] personality."
Regarding the LDP's plan to add a provision stipulating the legal basis for the Self-Defense Forces in Article 9 of the Constitution, 45 percent supported it, while 38 percent opposed it.
Asked about when the LDP should submit a bill to revise the Constitution, 18 percent said during an extraordinary Diet session this autumn. This was followed by 12 percent favoring the first half of next year and 11 percent in the second half of next year. Fourteen percent said it should be sometime in the year after next or later, while 31 percent said there was no need to submit it.
Regarding the Abe Cabinet policy of relocating the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station to the Henoko district in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, support for the policy came in at 35 percent, down nine percentage points from 44 percent in a survey conducted in February.
The approval rating for Abe's Cabinet was 50 percent, up from 45 percent in the previous survey conducted on July 21 and 22. The disapproval rating dropped to 40 percent from 45 percent in the previous survey.
When asked which party they support, 40 percent of respondents selected the LDP, down from 41 percent in the previous survey, followed by 4 percent who chose the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, down from 8 percent. Forty-five percent, up from 41 percent, do not support any party.
The survey was conducted by polling 918 households on landlines and 1,191 mobile phone users who were sampled with a random digit dialing method. All respondents were eligible voters aged 18 or older. Of them, 1,076 people -- 529 on landlines and 547 on mobile phones -- gave valid answers.
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