TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Nearly 60 percent of Japanese believe that the country's soaring rice prices will fall under the new farm minister, following his predecessor's sacking over a controversial remark about receiving gifted rice, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday.
In the two-day telephone poll conducted from Saturday, 59.8 percent expressed such expectations, while 35.1 percent said they do not believe there would be any such changes with Shinjiro Koizumi at the helm of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The survey also showed 44.7 percent believing rice prices should be brought below 3,000 yen per 5 kilograms, lower than recently pledged by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. That contrasts with 45.0 percent who believe the target rice price rollback is "appropriate," with only 7.6 percent saying the prices should be set higher.
According to the poll, 42.2 percent said the removal of then farm minister Taku Eto on Wednesday should have come sooner.
Eto came under fire after saying at a fundraising event on May 18 that he has "never had to buy rice" because he receives so much of it from supporters. Consumers and lawmakers had criticized him for being insensitive at a time when many households are struggling under rampant rice price inflation.
Ishiba initially sought to retain Eto but eventually caved in to opposition pressure.
The approval rating for Ishiba's Cabinet rose to 31.7 percent, up 4.3 percentage points from the previous weekend's survey according to the poll. The disapproval rating stood at 52.6 percent, compared with 55.1 percent.
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