By Chikafumi Hodo
TOKYO (Reuters) - About 60 percent of Japanese voters want opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa to resign after the arrest of a senior aide in a funding scandal that has clouded his party's prospects in a looming election, two surveys showed on Sunday.
But the scandal gave only a small boost to unpopular Prime Minister Taro Aso, and more voters still plan to back the opposition in the next election, the surveys showed.
A Mainichi newspaper poll showed 57 percent of respondents felt that Ozawa should step down as leader of the Democratic Party, while 33 percent said his resignation was unnecessary. The daily polled 1,032 respondents on Friday and Saturday.
Democratic Party leader Ozawa said he would not resign but the scandal has damaged his party's chances in the election, which must be held by October.
Ozawa's Democrats had been looking likely to win the vote and end more than 50 years of nearly unbroken rule by unpopular Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but few expect the struggling LDP to win big as a result of Ozawa's woes.
The latest twist in Japan's protracted political saga raised concern among investors that the election would fail to break a deadlock in parliament that has stalled government efforts to rescue the economy from its worst recession since World War Two.
A separate survey by Kyodo News agency produced similar results, with 61 percent calling for Ozawa to resign.
The percentage of voters who said they saw Ozawa as most suitable to be next prime minister fell to 33.6 percent, but that still outpaced Aso with 25.6 percent, Kyodo said.
Kyodo said that 43.5 percent of voters surveyed preferred a government led by the Democratic Party, compared with 31.6 percent who opted for an LDP-led administration.
The Mainichi poll showed a similar trend, with 28 percent planning to vote for the Democrats -- down 13 percentage points from the previous survey, but still more than 8 percentage points higher than those planning to vote for the LDP.
PRESSURE TO QUIT
Ozawa's aide was arrested last week on suspicion of taking illegal corporate donations. The scandal involved mid-sized contracting firm Nishimatsu Construction Co Ltd.
On Saturday, Ozawa repeated that he would not step down, Japan's Jiji wire reported. "I don't expect to get indicted or to go to court," Jiji quoted him as saying.
Democratic Party Secretary-General Yukio Hatoyama defended Ozawa on Sunday, but acknowledged pressure on him to quit would grow if public support for the party fell sharply or prosecutors found new evidence against the aide.
"I have no intention of saying that there won't be questions over whether he should resign or not," Hatoyama told public broadcaster NHK on Sunday.
"But ... it's only natural for us to support him and we will continue to do so," Hatoyama said.
An opposition victory in the next election would make Ozawa prime minister if he remains party leader, although analysts have questioned how long he would stay in the job given his health problems.
The Democrats, in favour of reducing bureaucratic meddling in policy and a diplomatic stance more independent of Washington, have been ahead in opinion polls as voters blame Aso for policy inaction and flipflops during his five months in office.
(Reporting by Chikafumi Hodo and Chisa Fujioka)
