The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet dropped Monday, marking the first time that the rate has declined in five surveys conducted since it was launched in last December.

According to the latest poll taken by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper over the weekend, the approval rating for Abe's Cabinet fell 2 percent from the newspapers previous survey to 72 percent.

The daily also reported Monday that the public's disapproval rate for the cabinet had increase to 20 percent from a previous 17 percent, with a mere 21 percent stating that the economy here is tangibly improving at the moment.

Although the yen has softened of late boosting Japanese exporters and attracting investors back to the Nikkei stock market to buy Japan Inc. blue chips and bellwethers, further depreciation of the yen may see Japan facing criticism from emerging economies concerned over possible spill-over effects.

These could include inordinately large fund influxes and the formation of asset bubbles, according to inferences made on the sidelines at a meeting of the Group of Seven this weekend, at which Japan's money moves and its central bank's ultra loose policy were scrutinized by the member economies' financial chiefs.

In developed economies a weaker yen sees profits shaved on exports to Japan.

With outstanding Japanese government debts reaching a record high at 991.60 trillion yen (about 9.74 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of fiscal 2012 through March, up 31.65 trillion yen (about 310.74 billion dollars) from a year before and the highest in the industrialized world, according to the latest Finance Ministry figures, more people in Japan did however feel that palpable economic change could be brought about by Abe's cabinet.

Of those surveyed, 55 percent said they believed that the cabinet will achieve an economic recovery for Japan, the daily reported.

On the thorny issue of Abe's hopes to revise the Constitution's Article 96, which will potentially pave the way for the Japanese leader to try and garner enough support to amend Japan's war- renouncing Article 9 in its current constitution, 51 percent said they oppose the idea, compared with 35 percent who support it.

The daily also reported that regarding the U.S.-led Trans- Pacific Partnership free trade pact, a sizable 28 percent of those surveyed were not in support of Japan joining the pact, compared to 55 percent who believed it was a good idea.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's most popular newspaper, conducted the nationwide telephone poll between Friday and Sunday, with 1, 030 eligible voters responding. Endi

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