Majority of Japan voters want election sooner: poll

Reuters/bdnews24.com . Tokyo

A majority of Japanese voters want a general election earlier than the planned August 30, an opinion poll showed on Wednesday, as the main opposition party kept its lead over the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The Japanese prime minister, Taro Aso, said on Monday he would dissolve parliament next week for an August 30 election, though some in the LDP still aim to oust the unpopular Aso before the vote.
In the poll by the Yomiuri newspaper, 56 percent of respondents said they want an election before August 30, while 30 per cent said Aso’s decision for that date was appropriate.
About 36 per cent said they plan to vote for the main opposition Democratic Party in the election, up 1 percentage point from the last survey, while 21 per cent will vote for the LDP, down 4 points.
An opposition victory in the lower house election would end more than half a century of almost unbroken rule by Aso’s business-friendly LDP. Some 45 per cent of respondents saw the Democrats leader Yukio Hatoyama as more suited for the premiership, while 25 per cent preferred Aso, the survey showed.