The Cabinet's approval rating slipped 4.3 points after its decision Tuesday to adopt a new defense posture for the nation by reinterpreting the Constitution.
In the telephone poll by Kyodo News on Tuesday and Wednesday, the approval rating for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet stood at 47.8 percent, down from 52.1 percent in the survey taken from June 21 to 22. It was the first time the rating had slipped below 50 percent since December.
The Cabinet's disapproval rating meanwhile soared to 40.6 percent from 33.0 percent with the most recent survey, topping 40 percent for the first time since Abe's second administration came to power in December 2012.