Taro Kono, Japan's Minister for Administrative Reform and Regulatory Reform, was the most favored candidate for the next prime minister in the latest poll conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun.

The survey of one-thousand-142 adults on Saturday and Sunday showed that 23 percent of respondents favored Kono, followed by Shigeru Ishiba, the former ruling Liberal Democratic Party's(LDP) secretary-general, at 21 percent.

Former LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Fumio Kishida ranked third at 12 percent, and Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi was fourth with eleven percent of support.

Another poll by Kyodo News from Saturday to Sunday also placed Kono in the lead at 31-point-nine percent, followed by Ishiba with 26-point-six percent.

Meanwhile, the Yoshihide Suga Cabinet garnered 31 percent of support in the Yomiuri survey, down four percentage points from a previous poll. The latest approval is the lowest since the Suga Cabinet entered office last September.

Asked about Prime Minister Suga's announcement that he will not seek reelection, 47 percent said that choice was "obvious", compared to 39 percent who said that was "not necessary".