Tokyo - Doubts about his qualifications for leading the country are eroding public support for Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, pulling his popularity ratings below 20 per cent and into ranges domestic media have dubbed a danger zone.
Although power brokers in Mr Mori's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are still backing the embattled Prime Minister, political analysts say sliding support rates could force them to rethink.
But the inability of mainstream factions in the long-ruling LDP - the biggest partner in Japan's ruling coalition - to agree on a successor to Mr Mori could help him keep his job.