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Japan certainly has a very difficult past when looking at previous prime ministers and the shortness of their tenures in the top job. But, according to a recent poll, support for the Democratic Party of Japan has jumped to 36 percent from just over 20 percent in late May and nearly 58 percent of those surveyed expressed high hopes for Naoto Kan, Japan’s new prime minister. "Kan has his predecessors to thank for setting the bar real low on leadership, and so I think that, yes, he is going to do a lot better,” said Jeff Kingston, a professor at Temple University, Japan Campus. "The bounce in the polls was much bigger than expected."