The approval rate for Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet has fallen to 33 percent and the disapproval rating topped the 50 percent mark for the first time since its launch last September at 53.3 percent, a Kyodo News poll showed April 4.

The support rate fell 3.3 points from a similar nationwide telephone poll conducted in March and hit a new low for the Cabinet while the disapproval rate rose 4.4 points.

In the survey, conducted April 3 and 4, 1,470 households with eligible voters were called and valid responses were received from 1,024 individuals.

As for the July Upper House election, 21.2 percent said they would vote for the LDP in the proportional-representation section, down 5.1 percent from the month before, and 26.3 percent preferred Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, down 0.6 points.

When asked who would be best suited to be prime minister, 22.4 percent of the respondents, the highest proportion, picked former Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Yoichi Masuzoe of the LDP. He was followed by Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan at 8.9 percent and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada at 7.8 percent.