TOKYO - The approval rate for Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government dropped to 15.8 percent, marking a fresh low since he took up the post in June last year, a Kyodo News poll showed Sunday.

The telephone survey, to which 1,016 eligible voters responded, was conducted on Saturday and Sunday. In the previous poll conducted in July, the support for Kan's Cabinet was 17.1 percent.

The poll also showed that former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara was the most popular politician among the potential candidates to succeed Kan, receiving 28 percent of votes by respondents.

Maehara was followed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano with 11.0 percent and DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada with 10. 9 percent, according to the poll.

Kan said he would resign after two key bills are passed in the parliament, hopefully later this month.