일본 새 총리 선호도 1위에 이시바 전 자민당 간사장<br /><br />With Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set to resign due to ill health,... Tokyo is now tasked with choosing its next leader.<br />A recent poll by Kyodo News suggests one of Japan's former defense chiefs is the most popular choice to step into Abe's shoes.<br />Lee Seung-jae has more.<br />According to a Kyodo News survey released on Sunday,... former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba is the most popular choice to be Japan's next prime minister.<br />It shows Ishiba leading with 34-point-3 percent support,... far outpacing other potential candidates.<br />The poll included Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga with 14-point-3 percent,... Defense Minister Taro Kono with 13-point-6 percent,... Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi with 10-point-1 percent,... and the Liberal Democratic Party's policy chief Fumio Kishida with 7-point-5 percent.<br />The survey, conducted over two days on 1-thousand-50 people,... also showed 58-point-6 percent believed Abe's resignation was appropriate.<br />Over a quarter said it came too late,... while 12-point-7 percent felt it was too soon.<br />Regarding what people want the next Cabinet to prioritize,... 72-point-9 percent chose the COVID-19 pandemic,... while others chose the economy and job creation.<br />However,... experts say that, despite Ishiba often being a frontrunner in the survey,... the chance of him winning the LDP presidential election isn't that high,... as he's less popular with the party's parliamentarians.<br />In 2012,... Ishiba beat Abe in the first round of an LDP presidential election thanks to strong support from the party's rank-and-file,... but was defeated in the second round when only lawmakers were allowed to vote.<br />Citing's Abe's sudden resignation and the pandemic,... the party's leadership is planning a scaled-down election,... excluding votes from grassroots members.<br />There's speculation it could take place on September 14th.<br />Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.<br />
