Tokyo, Nov 27 (IANS): The support rate for Japan's Kishida cabinet dropped to 33.1 per cent, the lowest since its launch in 2021, a media survey showed on Sunday.

The latest opinion poll by Kyodo News has shown that the approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet was down 4.5 percentage points from 37.6 in the previous poll conducted in late October, a record low since Kishida took office in October 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

The disapproval rating, meanwhile, rose to 51.6 per cent, exceeding 50 per cent for the first time, according to the result of the two-day nationwide telephone survey.

Kishida's leadership has increasingly been questioned after three of his ministers were sacked in less than a month amid falling public support. When asked when they want the prime minister to resign, 30.2 per cent of the respondents replied, "as soon as possible."

Among the surveyed, 29.4 per cent said they are willing to wait until Kishida's term as the head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party ends in September 2024, while 23.6 per cent said until after the Group of Seven summit to be hosted by Japan in Hiroshima in May 2023.

The survey conducted from Saturday called 519 randomly selected households with eligible voters on landline phones and 1,913 mobile phone numbers, receiving valid responses from 420 households and 615 mobile phone users.