It is the heretical style of new Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that has sent his Cabinet's approval ratings soaring, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda.
The unprecedented way in which the maverick leader formed his Cabinet -- by ignoring the Liberal Democratic Party's traditional factional pecking order -- has struck a chord with the public and bolstered his image in the first battery of opinion polls, Fukuda said during an interview.
The Cabinet's ratings had plunged to under 10 percent earlier this year under the leadership of Yoshiro Mori, one of the nation's most unpopular prime ministers ever. But Koizumi is a different breed, Fukuda said.