Japan voters prefer Kan to powerbroker Ozawa

TOKYO, Aug 28, AFP A majority of Japanese want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to stay on despite a challenge posed by powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa ahead of a party presidential race next month, Kyodo News reported Saturday.

Ozawa a major faction leader and veteran of backroom politics dubbed the "Shadow Shogun" announced Thursday his bid to oust Kan in next month's leadership election of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

His challenge has raised the possibility of the country getting its sixth premier in four years.

But the Kyodo survey of over 1,000 randomly selected voters on Friday and Saturday showed nearly 70 percent of respondents will back Kan in the election on September 14, while only 15.6 percent supported Ozawa, Kyodo said.

Public support for Kan's Cabinet came to 48.1 percent, up 9.4 points from the an earlier survey this month, Kyodo said.

The DPJ ended more than a half-century of nearly unbroken conservative rule in a historic electoral landslide almost a year ago. The party will elect a party president, the post now held by Kan, in the September vote.

Ozawa, a former party leader, was seen as the architect of the last year's election win and still commands the loyalty of many rookie members who owe their political fortunes to him.But he has also become a liability with voters over political funding scandals in which several of his aides have been indicted.Prosecutors have decided not to take Ozawa to court, but an official judicial review panel is still studying some claims against him and may yet decide to force prosecutors to build a criminal case.