JAPAN - Nearly 75 percent of respondents to the latest Yomiuri Shimbun survey said Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa should resign from his post following the indictment of three current and former aides.

The same survey found the disapproval rating for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet had increased by five percentage points to 47 percent, surpassing the approval rating--44 percent in this poll--for the first time since the Cabinet's inauguration in September.

In the previous survey conducted January 16th and 17th, the approval rating was 45 percent.

The three current and former aides of DPJ heavyweight Ozawa were recently indicted on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law by falsely reporting his political funds.

One of the three is Tomohiro Ishikawa, now a DPJ member of the House of Representatives.

The survey was conducted Friday and Saturday by telephone.

Following the indictment, 74 percent of respondents said Ozawa should resign as DPJ secretary general.

The latest survey clearly shows a gap between public opinion and the stance of the DPJ, which has allowed Ozawa to remain in his post.

Among respondents who said Ozawa should step down as secretary general, 66 percent said he also should resign from the lower house.

Twenty-nine percent said giving up his Diet seat was not necessary.

Ozawa has said the money used for a Tokyo land buy now under scrutiny came from his personal assets, but 86 percent of respondents said they were not fully convinced by his explanation.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office last week decided not to indict Ozawa over the alleged false reporting of his political funds.

Asked if the prosecutors' decision was appropriate, 31 percent said it was and 51 percent said it was not.

Regarding Ishikawa, 64 percent said he should resign as a lower house member, while 26 percent said he did not need to do so.

The latest survey also found only 5 percent of respondents believe the DPJ has done as much as it could to clean house, far below the 88 percent who said the party had not.

Asked which party they would vote for in the House of Councillors election scheduled for this summer, 27 percent said they would vote for the DPJ, down from 28 percent in the previous survey, while 22 percent, up from 21 percent, picked the Liberal Democratic Party, narrowing down the gap between the supporting rates for the nation's two major parties.

This trend appears to reflect the level of public dissatisfaction with Hatoyama, who also is head of the DPJ, and the party itself.

Asked where the government should transfer the functions of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, 31 percent chose the site decided upon by the Japan and U.S. governments in 2006.

Fifteen percent said outside the prefecture, and 35 percent chose outside the country.

Sixty-eight percent were concerned about the future relationship between Japan and the United States under the Hatoyama administration, greatly surpassing 25 percent who said they did not feel that way.

Twenty-one percent of respondents said they believed the Hatoyama Cabinet could revive the economy, while 66 percent said they did not think so.

Asked which party they support, 33 percent picked the DPJ, down from 34 percent in the previous survey, while an unchanged 20 percent chose the LDP.

The nationwide survey was conducted by calling telephone numbers randomly selected by computer.

Of the numbers called, 1,707 households had at least one eligible voter, and of these 1,054 voters, or 62 percent, responded.

HATOYAMA STANDS BY OZAWA 

Hatoyama on Saturday reiterated his intention to let Ozawa continue serving as DPJ secretary general.

"Prosecutors have made a judgment. I think it would be inappropriate to say more than that," Hatoyama told reporters in Tokyo.

Hatoyama had been asked about the results of opinion polls conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun and others that indicated many people felt Ozawa should resign his party post.

"There may be many people who wonder what the DPJ is doing about this kind of problem [concerning politics and money]," Hatoyama said.

"Since [the public] strongly expects us to change conventional politics, we cannot allow a return to the old way. We'll play our role as a new administration for the people--that's what it's all about," he said.

This article was first published in The Yomiuri Shimbun/Asia News Network.