Japan's outspoken first lady said Wednesday she would not marry Premier Naoto Kan again in another life, in a display of tough love to a husband already battling political rivals and low support ratings.

The prime minister's wife Nobuko Kan, 65, who is renowned for pulling few punches, admitted that she is not the kind of person who supports her husband through encouragement.

"I rather go for scolding and scolding. I pull back a little when I think I've been too severe," she told reporters when asked how she can support her husband when he is faced with criticism from media and opposition parties.

"He goes to parliament, telling me 'I hate (being grilled in) parliament, but it is easier than arguing against you'," said the woman Kan has called his "opposition in the home".

Nobuko last year published a book entitled 'What on Earth will change in Japan after you become prime minister?', which said Kan lacked dress sense, could not cook and had badly flunked delivering his first policy speech.

Nobuko said she would not marry Kan again if she was reborn.

"I wouldn't do it another time. The reason is that I have already lived this life and it's not fun to repeat the same thing. I would want to have a totally different life," said the unconventional first lady.

Kan took power in June last year as Japan's fifth premier in four years.

Public support ratings for Kan's cabinet have since tumbled to below 30 percent, amid public discontent over his centre-left government's management of economic and foreign affairs.

Nobuko quipped that she had told Kan there is a limit to just how bad things can get, telling him: "There is no such thing as a support rate below zero."

"Both of us may be too easy-going... but it is impossible (for Kan) to quit only because of low support ratings or bullying-like criticism," she said.

The couple, who are cousins, have been married for 40 years and have two sons who are both in their 30s.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)