Public unhappiness with Prime Minister Naoto Kan's leadership since the March 11 9-magnitude earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant accident rose to 76 percent from 63.7 percent in late March, the news agency said. Kyodo conducted the survey by telephone Friday and Saturday, but didn't report on how many people were polled.
Underscoring the pressure on Kan, nuclear adviser Toshiso Kosako of the University of Tokyo announced his resignation late Friday, telling reporters government-set limits for radiation exposure at schools near Japan's damaged Fukushima nuclear plant were too high, The New York Times reported. Saturday, Kan told Japan's Diet parliament the government's radiation limits had been crafted by a committee of experts and defended the findings. Kosako was among the experts Kan hired after the disasters.
Also in Tokyo Saturday, more than 400 people rallied in a park denouncing nuclear power and the country's nuclear policy, The Japan Times reported. The National Police Agency reported the disasters had killed 14,616 people and 11,111 others were unaccounted for as of Thursday.
