Survey Shows Most Japanese Want PM To Quit

The Asahi survey also showed support for Aso`s cabinet at a mere 13 percent, down one point from a Feb. 7-8 poll.

Seventy-one percent of Japanese voters want Prime Minister Taro Aso to resign soon, a newspaper survey published on Saturday showed, piling more pressure on the unpopular leader ahead of an election this year.

The Feb. 19-20 survey by the Asahi newspaper also showed that 64 percent want an early election to break through the political stalemate that is bedevilling Japan as its economy slips deeper into recession.

Aso, 68, suffered a potentially lethal blow this week when his finance minister resigned after being forced to deny that he was drunk at a Group of Seven news conference in Rome.

The Asahi survey also showed support for Aso's cabinet at a mere 13 percent, down one point from a Feb. 7-8 poll.

Calls have emerged inside his Liberal Democratic Party to replace Aso ahead of the election, which the long-ruling LDP looks increasingly in danger of losing.

That would end the LDP's more than half a century of almost unbroken rule and usher in a government led by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, which has pledged to reduce bureaucrats' control of policy, reduce social gaps and forge a diplomatic stance more independent of close ally Washington.