Poll: Aso approval rating at 11 percent

TOKYO, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- The approval rating for the Cabinet of Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has plummeted to 11 percent, a poll indicated Monday.

The Cabinet's approval rating has dropped 8 percentage points since January and is the third-worst figure recorded in the Mainichi Shimbun poll for any Cabinet since 1949, the newspaper reported.

The Aso Cabinet's 11 percent rating is the worst showing since the 9 percent approval for the Cabinet of Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita in March 1989 and a similar showing by Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's government in February 2001.

The government's disapproval rating also surged in the Mainichi Shimbun poll, jumping 8 percentage points to 73 percent. Some 44 percent of respondents cited Aso's "lack of leadership" as the main reason for their dissatisfaction, with 58 percent also blaming him for appointing Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned this month after displaying abnormal behavior during a Group of Seven news conference.

The newspaper didn't report its poll methodology.