Voters turn from Japan's PM

THE NEWLY formed Cabinet of the Japanese Prime Minister, Keizo Obuchi, was supported by less than one-third of voters questioned in a weekend poll, a newspaper reported yesterday.

The poll, by the newspaper Asahi, found 32 per cent support for Mr Obuchi's Cabinet, with 47 per cent of those polled saying they do not support the new administration. That figure was the worst disapproval rating for a new Cabinet since the paper began taking polls on the subject in 1955, excluding the brief, scandal-tainted government of Sousuke Uno in 1989.