The approval rating for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dropped to 48.7 percent, down 5.4 percentage points from the previous survey in late October, after the opposition camp accused Abe of using publicly funded cherry blossom-viewing parties for election campaigning, a survey showed Sunday.
It was the first time since July the approval rate has dropped below 50 percent.
As a reason for not supporting the administration, 36 percent said they can't trust the prime minister, up 8.2 percentage points from the previous survey.