The approval rating for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in the latest Kyodo News survey is down to a mere 7 percent, a drop of 12 percentage points from a similar poll in December. His disapproval rating, meanwhile, has leaped to 82 percent from 65 percent.

The approval rating is the lowest for a prime minister in a Kyodo poll since April 1989, when only 4 percent of respondents supported then Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, who was on the verge of resigning over the Recruit stock-for-favors scandal.

Mori is under increasing pressure to step down from both the opposition and from elements in the ruling coalition, which includes his Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party.

Crippled by a series of gaffes and blunders, as well as various scandals involving members of his Cabinet and several LDP lawmakers, criticism against Mori intensified recently after it was made known he continued to play golf for about two hours on Feb. 9 after learning that a U.S. submarine had hit and sunk a Japanese fisheries training ship off Hawaii.

The survey was conducted by telephone on 1,000 people nationwide Saturday and Sunday.

According to the survey, nearly 70 percent of people who either support the LDP or its coalition ally New Komeito said they no longer support the prime minister.

Of those who do not support Mori, 35 percent cited his lack of leadership, while 28 percent replied they "cannot trust" him.

Eighty-one percent of the respondents said they see a problem with Mori continuing to play golf after hearing of the sub accident, while Mori's pricey golf course membership received effectively as a gift from a company executive prompted 75 percent to call it a "serious problem."

Asked about which party they support, 22 percent of the pollees cited the LDP, almost unchanged from the December survey.

Support for the largest opposition force, the Democratic Party of Japan, rose slightly to 20 percent, followed by 5 percent for the Social Democratic Party, 5 percent for the Liberal Party, and 4 percent for the Japanese Communist Party. Support for New Komeito stood at 3 percent.

Asked who they would support as prime minister if Mori should decide to step down, 29 percent said they support LDP maverick lawmaker Makiko Tanaka, followed by 19 percent for Junichiro Koizumi, the former health minister, and 9 percent for former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, the state minister in charge of administrative reform.

Hiromu Nonaka, a former LDP secretary general who is reportedly favored by the LDP's coalition allies, came in fifth with 5 percent, according to the survey.