Japan PM at risk as govt ratings drop before vote

Hatoyama reiterated he would do his best in his current post, but chances are fading for his ruling coalition to win a majority in an upper house election expected in July, which it needs to win to avoid policy deadlock.

The political furore is distracting the government as it thrashes out plans to cut Japan's huge public debt and a strategy to engineer growth despite a fast-ageing population.

Japanese newspaper polls showed fresh declines in voter support for Hatoyama's eight-month-old government, with an Asahi newspaper survey showing its rating slid to 17 percent, down from 21 percent a few weeks ago.

Equally if not more troubling for the government, a survey by the Yomiuri newspaper showed that 19 percent of voters now plan to cast their ballots for the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) compared to just 14 percent for Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan.

In the latest blow to the struggling Hatoyama, the tiny Social Democratic Party (SDP) left the ruling coalition on Sunday after the premier abandoned his pledge to move a US Marine airbase off Japan's southern Okinawa island; Kazinform cites China Daily.

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