The support rate for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Taro Aso has fallen to 18.1 percent, down 1.1 percentage points from last month, according to the results of the latest Kyodo News survey released Monday.
The outcome of the telephone survey conducted Saturday and Sunday raises the possibility that Aso, who took office last September, will have an even tougher time running the government.
The disapproval rate for the Cabinet was 70.9 percent, up 0.7 point.
Fully 77.0 percent of the respondents said they do not have high expectations for Aso's economic stimulus measures, compared with 19.4 percent who said they do.
"We have to make more efforts to raise the support rate as much as possible," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura told a news conference, adding it is important for the fiscal 2009 budget and related bills for a second extra budget for fiscal 2008 to be enacted to implement economic measures.
A total of 1,477 households chosen randomly were contacted, of whom 1,022 responded.
Kawamura, the top government spokesman and a senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker, brushed off any suggestion that Aso will be removed as party president ahead of a general election.