TOKYO (Reuters) -Public approval for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's cabinet has dropped to 17.1% in December, the worst since the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power in December 2012, a Jiji Press poll published on Thursday showed.
The approval rating fell 4.2 point percentage points from the previous month, showed the Jiji opinion survey conducted Friday to Monday.
It is the first time public approval has fallen below 20% since September 2009 when the cabinet for then-Prime Minister Taro Aso received 13.4% support.
The LDP's approval also sank to the lowest since re-capturing power, dropping 0.8 percentage points from the previous month to 18.3% this month.
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
