TOKYO, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Many Japanese feel Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may become more high-handed in managing his administration after his party's landslide victory Sunday.
The election for the lower house of Parliament resulted in Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition ally having a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, which conducted a nationwide telephone survey Monday, found that more than 60 percent of the 989 people who responded expressed concern that Koizumi might become more overbearing in managing his administration and policies, the newspaper reported Wednesday.
Asked how they felt about the LDP's overwhelming victory, 48.6 percent of those polled said they felt happy, while 37.8 percent said they felt unhappy. The newspaper also found that 55.5 percent of those surveyed said the LDP had won too many seats.
As for the main reasons for the LDP victory, 44.3 percent cited "the party's stance over reforms" and 43.5 percent pointed to "the party leader," meaning Koizumi.
The popular support rate for the Koizumi Cabinet stood at 61 percent, an increase of 8.4 percentage points from the previous survey, taken shortly before the Sept. 11 election.
