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LEAD: 61% call for opposition leader Ozawa to step down: Kyodo poll+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) TOKYO, March 8_(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING, ADDING DETAILS) Pressure has increased for Ichiro Ozawa to step down as Democratic Party of Japan leader as 61.1 percent of respondents in a telephone survey called for him to do so following a fundraising scandal that led to the arrest of his chief secretary, the results of a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday. The survey, carried out on Saturday and Sunday, also found 28.9 percent said Ozawa should stay on. It also showed that the support rate for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso edged up to 16.0 percent, up 2.6 percentage points from Kyodo's previous poll conducted Feb. 17 to 18. The disapproval rate was down 5.8 points to 70.8 percent. In the opinion poll, phone calls were made to numbers selected randomly by computer. A total of 1,479 households with eligible voters were called, with valid responses received from 1,032 individuals. The latest Kyodo poll was the first of its kind since Ozawa's chief secretary, Takanori Okubo, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of taking illegal corporate donations from organizations linked to general contractor Nishimatsu Construction Co. Ozawa has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he has no intention of resigning as party president. Okubo's arrest is considered a serious blow to the DPJ's bid to seize power in parliament from the LDP-led coalition in a general election that must be held by this fall. Until the scandal emerged, Ozawa had been widely regarded as the man that would likely be chosen as prime minister as the DPJ gained more support than the LDP led by the deeply unpopular Aso, who assumed office only last September, in recent months. Of the respondents in the latest survey, however, 43.5 percent said they would prefer a government led by the DPJ, compared with the 31.6 percent who said they prefer an LDP-led government. In the previous survey, 53.4 percent preferred the DPJ, to 28.1 percent for the LDP. Ozawa saw the support rate fall 12.8 points to 33.6 percent with regard to who is most suitable to be prime minister. But the rate was still higher than that for Aso, who got 25.6 percent with a rise of 5.2 points. The LDP, which has governed Japan for more than half a century with an almost unbroken succession, has its own agony from the donations scandal. Prosecutors' probes have reportedly been spilling over to LDP lawmakers, including economy, trade and industry minister Toshihiro Nikai, a key figure in Aso's Cabinet, although he has denied the allegation. Also on Sunday, the Mainichi Shimbun daily reported that its poll found some 57 percent of respondents said Ozawa should step down, compared with 33 percent who see a resignation by Ozawa as unnecessary. The Mainichi survey covered 1,686 households nationwide, with 1,032 people responding. Copyright ? 2009 Kyodo News International, Inc. |