The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tokyo

Japan's new Prime Minister Taro Aso asked the public Friday not to judge him too quickly, as one of his ministers was already faced opposition calls to quit over remarks deemed as offensive.

Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) voiced disappointment over the first poll numbers for Aso, a conservative who has vowed new budget measures to revive the world's second largest economy . LDP leaders are closely watching his poll numbers to see if Aso can gamble by quickly calling a snap election to hold off gains by the opposition, which has seized on public concerns about a weak economy.

Newspapers published polls Friday giving his government an approval rating ranging from 45 to 53 percent-a leap from his beleaguered predecessor, but 10 points or more lower than other recent governments in their first days.

Aso, who flew to New York a day after taking over to address the UN General Assembly, said the public was "just looking at appearance."

"Ratings can only come after I get some of my job done," he told reporters at UN headquarters, in comments broadcast on Japanese television.

As Aso rushed back home, one of his ministers was already in trouble.

Transport Minister Nariaki Nakayama apologised after saying in his first interview that Japan was a "homogenous" country. Similar remarks by lawmakers in the past have upset the Ainu, northern Japan's indigenous people.

"I hear the Ainu people expressed displeasure and that's not what I intended," Nakayama said. "I decided to retract my remarks."

Nakayama also said in the interview that schools with teachers' unions had lower standards, and that farmers fighting for land seized for airport construction were "making profits by whining."

Nakayama, who re-entered the cabinet under Aso, is a staunch conservative who headed a group denying that Japanese troops massacred the occupied city of Nanjing in 1937.

The opposition demanded Aso fire him.

"He took back his remarks because they reflected what he really believes," said Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the main opposition Democratic Party. "He must not stay in the ministerial position while concealing his beliefs."

Opposition leaders have said that they think Aso is considering any Sunday between October 26 and November 9 for the general election.

The polls show that the LDP, which has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955, has only a narrow edge over the Democratic Party, which last year took control of one house of parliament.

"I think the published figures are generally lower than expectations," said Akihiro Ota, head of the LDP's coalition partner New Komeito.

"But elections are battles. I don't think there is any change to the general current" of having early elections, Ota told reporters.

Still, the polls also said that voters preferred Aso as prime minister by a two-to-one margin over main opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa, a brusque veteran strategist nicknamed "The Destroyer" for his election campaigns.

The most popular prime minister in recent times was Junichiro Koizumi, a flamboyant campaigner whose popularity soared to nearly 90 percent after he took office with a pledge to destroy the old guard in his own LDP.

Koizumi, whose 2001-2006 tenure was the longest in three decades, stole some of the spotlight from his sometime rival Aso by saying Thursday that he would retire from politics with the next election.