Prime Minister Naoto Kan continued to enjoy the support of a majority of voters as the preferred leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan ahead of Tuesday's presidential election against party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa, an opinion poll showed Saturday.
The telephone survey conducted Thursday and Friday showed 67.3 percent of those polled backed Kan to 22.8 percent for Ozawa, a former DPJ secretary general. This compared with the previous survey held two weeks ago, when Kan had the backing of 69.9 percent and Ozawa 15.6 percent.
Public support for Kan's Cabinet rose to 54.7 percent from 48.1 percent, while the disapproval rate dropped 4.7 percentage points to 31.5 percent.