TOKYO: Japan’s embattled Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Monday rejected growing calls to reshuffle his cabinet or call early elections after a turbulent parliament session.The prime minister, preparing for a summit next month of the Group of Eight rich nations, was hit earlier this month by an unprecedented censure motion as his government’s approval rating slumps to rock bottom.

“I’m always asking myself if it’s time for dissolution” of the lower house for early elections, Fukuda told a customary news conference to close the parliament session. “But first we have to implement policies rather than troubling people. That’s my duty,” he said.

The government’s approval rating stands at just over 20 per cent after it introduced a controversial medical plan for the elderly, a sensitive issue in a rapidly ageing country.

The opposition, which won control of one house of parliament nearly a year ago, slapped Fukuda with a censure motion on June 11 and urged him to call an early election.

But Fukuda, whose Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has been in power for all but 10 months since 1955, does not have to call a general election until September next year.

Fukuda has previously said that he wants a stable government as he prepares to host the G8 summit from July 7 to 9 in the northern Japanese resort of Toyako.

Fukuda said he hoped the upcoming summit would take up soaring energy and food costs. At the Toyako summit, “not only the issue of the global environment but also surges in crude oil and food prices will be firmly discussed. I want to take a first step toward concrete measures,” Fukuda said.

He also called for action on climate change, despite resistance by the United States to the summit setting a mid-term goal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions blamed for heating up the planet.

Taku Yamasaki, a heavyweight in the ruling party, said last week that if Fukuda does not reshuffle his cabinet in July, “he will miss his chance.” ”He has been criticised by the public over welfare, medical and tax problems although his government is not (directly) responsible for them,”Yamasaki said. “He needs to aim at a breakthrough in the situation.” But Fukuda said: “The current ministers are working very hard, seriously tackling various issues.” ”We are still in the middle of planning and implementing policies. We will have to evaluate them in general in the future. But we’re not in a position now to do that,” he added.

Fukuda took office last September after his predecessor Shinzo Abe stepped down following the scandal-hit government party’s crushing defeat at the hands of the opposition in an upper house election.—AFP