Japan: Most unhappy with crisis response

TOKYO, April 5 (UPI) -- Sixty-one percent of Japanese are dissatisfied with the government's handling of the nuclear crisis at the quake-hit Fukushima power plant, a survey indicates.

The weekend telephone survey of 1,666 respondents, based on computer-generated telephone numbers and conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun, also found 64 percent of respondents said they would support the Democratic Party of Japan, which leads the coalition government, and the Liberal Democratic Party forming a grand coalition for managing the nuclear crisis and working on disaster recovery.

In the survey, 19 percent of those asked said they would like to see Prime Minister Naoto Kan step down "soon," while 31 percent said they would like to see Kan stay until the current session of Parliament ended this summer.

Sixty percent of respondents said taxes should be raised to finance earthquake and tsunami recovery programs against 32 percent who disagreed.

Forty-six percent said the current number of nuclear power stations in Japan should be retained, 10 percent said it should be increased, 29 percent said it should be reduced and another 12 percent called for ending reliance on nuclear power.

The approval rating for the Kan Cabinet rose to 31 percent from 24 percent in the previous survey taken last month.

The nationwide survey excluded some areas in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures that were severely hit by the massive 9-magnitude quake and tsunami, the newspaper said.