Japan PM Support Falls To 9.7 Pct - TV Survey

Recent surveys suggest the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) stands a good chance of winning the election.

Beleaguered Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso's support rate has slumped to 9.7 percent, private broadcaster NTV reported on Sunday, a level that will likely boost calls to replace him ahead of an election this year.

Aso's support has been sliding after series of policy flip-flops and gaffes as he struggles with a deepening recession, a divided parliament and a fractious ruling party ahead of an election that must be held no later than October.

Most recently, Aso came under fire for saying he had opposed privatising Japan's huge postal system, the flagship of reforms pushed by popular Junichiro Koizumi during his tenure as prime minister from 2001-06 and the key issue in a 2005 election that handed the ruling bloc a huge victory.

That prompted a rare and highly public rebuke from Koizumi, fanning speculation that the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would seek to replace Aso ahead of the election for parliament's powerful lower house.

Recent surveys suggest the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) stands a good chance of winning the election.

That would end more than 50 years of almost unbroken LDP rule and usher in a government pledged to break the grip bureaucrats have on policy and reduce social gaps that critics say widened because of Koizumi's reforms.

NTV's survey on Feb 13-15 had 576 respondents. Aso' cabinet support rate was 17.4 in the broadcaster's previous survey in January.