Kyodo poll: Japan PM's approval rating dips

The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has dropped nearly eight points to 55 percent in his first month in office, according to an opinion poll published Sunday. Kyodo news agency conducted the random telephone poll of over 1,000 people on Saturday and Sunday. When Noda formed his cabinet on September 2 after being elected prime minister, the support rating stood at 62.8 percent, Kyodo said. The majority in the poll did not support the plan to raise taxes to finance reconstruction in areas affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which sparked the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. Kyodo said 51 percent opposed the plan and 46 percent supported it. Noda, who replaced the unpopular Naota Kan on August 31, inaugurated a youthful cabinet, which included inexperienced finance and foreign ministers. The economy minister Yoshio Hachiro resigned this month after he described the area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant a "town of death", a comment deemed insensitive to evacuees from the site. Since taking office, Noda has set three top priorities for his government -- recovery from the disaster, an end to the nuclear emergency and rehabilitation of the domestic economy.