The approval rating for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet stood at 53.1 percent, dropping 0.1 percentage point from the last survey, while Japanese voters' interest in the lower house election spiked, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Saturday.

The paper's poll displayed a sharp rise in public interest in the general election scheduled for Sept. 11. Among the people surveyed, 57 percent said they had strong interest in the election, compared to 32 percent before the 2003 election campaign kicked off.

As for parties, the largest number of respondents said they would support the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in both single-seat and proportional constituencies. The major opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) came second.

The election campaign started on Aug. 30. The LDP is pressing hard for the Koizumi-championed postal privatization project. The bills on the issue failed to be endorsed by the parliament on Aug. 8, and Koizumi immediately dissolved the House of Representatives.

The DPJ is stepping up efforts to highlight its own initiatives on pension reform and children rearing.

The Yomiuri survey showed that 62 percent of respondents said they were in favor of postal privatization, up five points from the survey conducted a week ago.

The paper said that the easy-to-understanding Koizumi-style politics, that take advantage of famous people to lead the LDP's battle against party members who opposed the reform, apparently have boosted public interest in the election.

The telephone survey was conducted from Wednesday through Friday with 1,990 valid responses, or 57.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua