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Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Yahoo! Search Search: Sign InNew User? Sign Up News Home - Help Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Australia China India Indonesia Japan Malaysia Philippines Thailand Vietnam Search Search: Japan's PM faces uphill battle even on home turf AFP - Thursday, August 13 IIZUKA, Japan (AFP) - - Shuttered store-fronts line the main street of the home district of Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso, where some people speak in hushed tones about his prospects in elections this month. ADVERTISEMENT For decades Iizuka has been the solid heartland of the powerful Aso clan, which ran the coal mines that were the economic backbone of this town on southern Kyushu island before they closed down in the 1960s. The family name is still ubiquitous -- there is the Lafarge Aso Cement Co, Aso System Solution, the Supermarket Aso and more than 60 other entities named after the dynasty that has produced two prime ministers. For decades, the Aso family's politicians have lavished funds and public works projects on the area, in return for rock-solid voter support. But for many, the name of their generations-old benefactors now rings hollow in this town, which has had a forlorn feel since many of its young people have left to try their luck in the big cities. A man sitting alone on a bench near the train station, 50-year-old Makio Noda, said that, like many Japanese, he had recently lost his job. "I owed the Aso family," he said, a hint of bitterness in his voice, one recent afternoon. "I would always buy food at Supermarket Aso when this town was still a lively place. Look how lonesome it is now." Iizuka was the centre of Japan's richest coal fields during World War II, when prisoners of war also worked in the Aso mines. But when deposits were exhausted in the 1960s, the population quickly shrank. It is a familiar picture in much of Japan, a fast-greying society with a low birth rate, where many rural towns are slowly dying, eroding a key base of traditional support for Aso's conservative party. "We are not very excited about the election," said a local woman, watering plants outside her downtown shop. "I can't say this out loud," she whispered, "but Mr. Aso isn't so popular around here." Many in Japan now feel the same, according to a string of opinion polls over recent months that have given the opposition a commanding lead over Aso's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ahead of the August 30 vote. It was only last September when 68-year-old Aso took over the top post, but the gravel-voiced premier has since slipped in the polls as voters have questioned his leadership amid the deepest recession in post-war Japan. Shortly before Aso called the lower house election last month, he gave a tearful apology to his party for a string of verbal gaffes and missteps that he admitted had cost the LDP dearly. Many of Aso's hometown supporters also cried when they saw Aso's speech, worried for the city's best-known son and fearing the demise of his party, which has utterly dominated Japanese politics since 1955. "The race will be uphill," admitted Aso's local chief secretary, Shuichi Saruwatari. "But many in this town still have great expectations for Mr. Aso." One loyal supporter, 83-year-old Yoshiko Sadoshima, gave a thumbs up for Aso as she walked with her cane out of the Aso Iizuka Hospital. "Mr. Aso is the one for the people in Iizuka," she said. "I worked for his family company as a telephone operator for 30 years. "He is a good man, although he was a bit of a brat when he was younger," she added as if talking about a roguish but lovable grandchild. Aso, the grandson of former premier Shigeru Yoshida, once ran the family's cement factory, just one episode in a life that has also seen him trade diamonds in Sierra Leone and shoot clay pigeons at the 1976 Olympics. He entered politics in 1979 and has also served as foreign minister. Now Aso, who likes cigars and has cultivated a tough and street-wise image, faces the very real risk of being the man who leads his long-unbeatable party into a historic defeat against the Democratic Party of Japan. According to recent projections by the magazine Shukan Asahi, he could even lose his own electoral district -- which he has visited only once since becoming prime minister, at a campaign stop early this month. But Saruwatari said the town's decline may in fact work in Aso's favour. "After the mines closed, the city population dropped greatly," he said. "Many people feel the town needs a powerful politician." Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Sign in to recommend this article » 0 users recommend Related Articles: Asia Pacific Australian Senate defeats greenhouse gas billsAP - Thursday, August 13 Slain Jakarta florist said to have plotted blastsAP - Thursday, August 13 Quake-prone Japan still waiting for 'the big one'AFP - Thursday, August 13 Dozens die in militant battle in PakistanAP - Thursday, August 13 Weather forecast for the Asia-Pacific regionAP - Thursday, August 13 Enlarge Photo Japan's PM faces uphill battle even on home turf Most Popular – Asia Pacific Viewed Perseid meteor showers heading your way Merkel's cleavage heats up German vote campaign Wife of Twitter CEO 'tweeting' child birth Sweden's Princess Madeleine to marry: palace Don't brush with baldness: put down that comb View Complete List » Search: Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Copyright © 2009 Yahoo! Southeast Asia Pte Ltd. (Co. Reg. 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