Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told senior party officials Wednesday he intended to step down, public broadcaster NHK reported.

Hatoyama's support rate plunged below 20 percent after being blamed for dividing the ruling coalition due to his mishandling of a plan to relocate a U.S. military facility in Okinawa, causing the Social Democratic Party to bolt from the coalition and reposition themselves to oppose the DPJ in the forthcoming election. If Hatoyama does resign either before or after the upper house election in July, he will be the fourth Japanese prime minister to do so in four years.