Japan PM Ishiba bounces back in polls after election debacle

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba s poll ratings have rebounded a month after disastrous election results left his premiership hanging by...

Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's poll ratings have rebounded a month after disastrous election results left his premiership hanging by a thread, a clutch of surveys showed Monday.

Ishiba took the helm of the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) last year and has since lost his majority in both houses of parliament, most recently in upper chamber elections in July.

But the self-confessed defence policy "geek" and maker of model ships has defied calls to resign from within the party, which has governed Japan almost non-stop since the 1950s.

According to one poll by the Yomiuri Shimbun daily published Monday, the approval rating for Ishiba's cabinet was 39 percent, a record 17 points higher than after the July 20 vote.

More respondents (50 percent) now think Ishiba should remain than resign (42 percent), the questionnaire showed, a reversal from July, when 54 percent said he should go and 35 percent stay.