Support for Mori has nose-dived since last month, when he set off a political storm by calling Japan a "divine nation" centered on the emperor - suggesting to many the kind of nationalistic rhetoric used by politicians before World War II.

Recent polls indicate his administration is the least popular to face an election since the end of the war, with approval ratings below 20 percent. Even so, his Liberal Democrats were not expected to lose their position as the country's ruling party.

At stake are 480 seats in the lower house, the more powerful of Japan's two-chamber Parliament. The Liberal Democrats hold 267 of the current 500 seats, and with their two coalition partners control 336, a comfortable majority.

With the dissolution of the lower house, the official campaign for the June 25 elections was to begin next week.

"The timing is not good for the LDP, but they probably weren't expecting Mori's popularity rating to fall so quickly," said Masumi Ishikawa, a political science professor at Tokyo's Obirin University.

Despite Mori's sagging support, party leaders have said they hope to win at least 229 seats in the reconfigured chamber. Though considered a fairly easy goal, failure to attain that level could force Mori to resign.

By dissolving the lower house, Mori effectively shelved a no-confidence motion posed by the opposition parties, which argued he has proven himself unfit to lead the nation.

The motion was largely ceremonial. The Liberal Democrats and their two coalition partners easily had enough votes in Parliament to have defeated it.

But Yukio Hatoyama, head of the Democratic Party, Japan's largest opposition group, criticized Mori's decision to dissolve the house as an attempt to avert the public's attention from the scandals.

"They are just trying to hide," he said.

Along with the controversy over the divine nation comments, Mori has been dogged by allegations that his administration covered up the gravity of the condition of his predecessor, Keizo Obuchi, who fell into a coma in early April. Obuchi died May 14.

Mori, who assumed office soon after Obuchi's collapse, also has faced reports he was caught in a raid on a brothel while still a college student and that in 1995 he attended a wedding reception where one of the guests was a leading gangster.

He has denied the brothel allegations, and said he was unaware of the gangster's attendance at the reception.

The date of the elections is up to the discretion of the prime minister, and Mori could have waited until October to call them. Opposition party leaders have criticized Mori for allegedly calling the elections now to capitalize on Obuchi's death.

Leaders from around the world, including President Clinton, are to attend a state funeral for Obuchi on June 8, and the date Mori has chosen for the election would have been Obuchi's 63rd birthday.

Concerns that an untested opposition cannot be trusted to nurture Japan's fledgling economic recovery could outweigh concerns about Mori's outspokenness. The Liberal Democrats have been in control throughout most of the postwar era.

Still, the controversies surrounding Mori are expected to take a bite out of a sizable sympathy vote experts had predicted for the LDP. Instead, the party was seen as hoping that they could cut their losses by holding the elections quickly.

"Support for the Mori administration has plunged across the board since his 'divine nation' remarks," said an editorial Friday in the Mainichi, a major newspaper. "The comments threw doubt on his fitness to lead, and the public has reacted to that."