The popular approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has inched up to 45.2 percent, according to the results of a Kyodo News opinion poll released Monday.
Another 40.9 percent of respondents to the telephone survey, conducted Saturday and Sunday, said they disapprove of Koizumi's administration.
The approval rating for the Cabinet has risen 1.1 percentage points from the previous poll, conducted about one month ago, while the disapproval rate has fallen 1.2 points. The results of the poll, conducted on 1,031 people who have voting rights, suggest that popular support for Koizumi, which had fallen sharply since January, has bottomed out and is picking up again.