Japan's Aso is ready and waiting as PM's woes grow

By Linda Sieg

TOKYO (Reuters) - Ready, willing and waiting. That's prime ministerial wannabe Taro Aso's message to the Japanese public as incumbent Yasuo Fukuda's woes deepen and his popularity sags.

Appearing this week on popular TV show "SMAPxSMAP", where pop idols cook for celebrity guests, the outspoken former foreign minister confirmed one of politics' worst-kept secrets -- he longs for the nation's top job.

"There are things I want to do that are impossible unless I am prime minister," Aso, 67, said on the program, where he cracked jokes and sampled a menu that included hamburger smothered in cheese.

Aso never referred to Fukuda's headaches, but the 71-year-old Japanese leader has lots of them.

A Japanese warship collided with a fishing boat on Tuesday, leaving two men missing and prompting opposition calls for the defense minister to resign amid charges of slack crisis management and conflicting reports about the accident's cause.

Fukuda's support rating has been falling since he took office last September on doubts about his leadership, fanned by a defense ministry bribery scandal, misplaced public pension records and a sense that he lacks policy vision and flair.

Fukuda is also struggling to enact laws because opposition parties control parliament's upper house and can delay bills, as well as block key appointments such as for a successor to Bank of Japan Governor Toshihiko Fukui, whose term expires on March 19.

The slide in Fukuda's support rating, down about nine points from a month ago to 38.7 percent in a media survey published on Tuesday, before the maritime accident, has stirred speculation that his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will seek to replace him ahead of a general election that could come this year.  Continued...