Nearly half think Abe should quit

TOKYO: Nearly half of Japanese voters believe Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should quit to take responsibility over a cronyism scandal and cover-up that have sent his support sliding, according to an opinion poll released yesterday.

Suspicions have arisen about a sale of state-owned land at a huge discount to a nationalist school operator with ties to the prime minister’s wife, Akie, setting off the biggest political crisis Mr Abe has faced since returning to power in 2012 and prompting protesters to call almost nightly for him to quit.

Mr Abe has denied that either he or his wife intervened in the sale or were involved in altering documents related to the deal, in which mention of his and Akie’s names were removed.

According to a public opinion survey covered by the liberal Asahi newspaper at the weekend, 48% of those polled said Mr Abe and his government should quit, compared to 39% who said that wasn’t necessary.

Those who said they supported Mr Abe slid to 32.6%, down 11.7 percentage points from a month ago, while those who said they did not rose 13.2 percentage points to 54.9%.

Asked why they supported him, the largest number — 37.8% — said it was because his government “seems better than others”, a reflection of the fragmented opposition and voter memories of the rocky tenure of the rival Democratic Party of Japan, one part of the reason Mr Abe has managed to stay in power as long as he has.

No margin of error was given for the poll, in which 66.7% of 1,606 people contacted responded.

Asked about the land sale scandal in a parliamentary committee yesterday, Mr Abe reiterated that as head of the government he was responsible for voters losing trust in his administration but repeated his denial that either he or his wife had been directly involved in the land sale.