Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe is the overwhelming favorite in the Sept. 20 election for the country's next leader, according to a survey.
Abe, a conservative known for his tough stance against China and North Korea, formally announced his candidacy at a press conference last week.
Abe called for a more assertive nation and urged the revision of Japan's pacifist post-World War II Constitution and an expansion of the country's alliance with the United States.
The 51-year-old nationalist politician advocates maintaining close ties with the United States while forging new links with Asian democracies. If elected Abe would be Japan's youngest post-war prime minister.
The survey, conducted by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, showed 53 percent of eligible voters expressed support for Abe in the election for the presidency of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
As for Abe's two rivals, Foreign Minister Taro Aso won a 14 percent approval rating, while Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki got 10 percent support.
The newspaper contacted eligible voters at random by telephone and received 836 valid responses, or 53 percent of the total number of people polled, it said.
According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily, more than 70 percent of the 403 LDP lawmakers are ready to vote for Abe.
Since the LDP controls parliament's powerful lower house, its new president is virtually assured of succeeding Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose term as LDP chief runs out this month.
On the question of visits to war-related Yasukuni Shrine by the next prime minister, 47 percent of respondents were opposed, while 31 percent expressed support, according to the survey.
However, voters were divided on whether the Yasukuni issue should figure prominently in the LDP race. Forty-nine percent said it is "not necessary," while 45 percent said it was.
Visits to the shrine by Koizumi and other Japanese leaders have long sparked denunciations from South Korea and China. The war shrine in Tokyo honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including a dozen war criminals from World War II. Koreans and Chinese view it as a symbol of Japanese imperialism.
