The support rate for Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Cabinet fell 2.8 percentage points to 24.5 percent, marking its second-lowest rating, a Kyodo News survey showed Sunday, with most respondents indicating discontent with his fact-finding efforts regarding the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's political funds scandal.
Some 84.9 percent said LDP lawmakers who failed to report income from fundraising parties should explain what they used the funds for, while 87 percent expect the party's reform proposals drawn up in an interim report will not help the LDP restore public trust.
The approval rating of the Kishida Cabinet hit an all-time low in December last year at 22.3 percent, wavering in the 20 percent range for the past four polls, including the previous survey in January.
The disapproval rating rose 1.4 point from the previous poll to 58.9 percent.
The LDP, led by Kishida, has come under intense scrutiny amid allegations that three of its factions, including the one he led until December, failed to report portions of their revenues from fundraising parties and created slush funds to distribute the proceeds to members.
Prosecutors have indicted or issued summary indictments for 10 individuals belonging to the three groups. However, executives of the factions have not faced criminal charges due to a lack of evidence.
The survey's results suggest Kishida is far from regaining the public's trust, as most respondents do not accept his efforts on party reforms.
A total of 76.5 percent said a guilt-by-association measure between lawmakers and their staffers should be introduced in the political funds control law, while 89.3 percent answered that it was even necessary to report expenses for political activities that are currently exempted from income and expenditure reports.
Some 83.4 percent of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of criminal charges against the executives.
While the ruling party began an internal investigation into the scandal, critics have argued that the probe is unlikely to be impartial or help clarify how the funds were collected and used.
Meanwhile, the party's internal reform proposals pledge to move away from factions as vehicles for securing funds and allocating important government and party posts for lawmakers.
The proposals do, however, allow factions to continue as "policy groups," raising questions about how to distinguish between the two. The proposals also do not mention whether to introduce guilt-by-association measures.
The poll found that 50.9 percent favor eliminating factions and policy groups.
Regarding the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, 27 percent said the event should be postponed to prioritize reconstruction from an earthquake last month on the Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast. Another 27.1 percent believe the event should go as planned, while 26.7 percent said it should be reduced in scale.
Economic security minister Sanae Takaichi last month urged Kishida to push the event back, saying that ballooning building materials costs and a labor shortage stemming from the expo preparations could hamper post-disaster reconstruction efforts for the quake-hit areas.
In the latest poll, the LDP continued to receive the highest backing among the political parties at 31.5 percent, down from the previous 33.3 percent.
The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan held a support rate of 9.0 percent, up from 8.1 percent, while the Japan Innovation Party saw an increase to 9.4 percent from 8.8 percent.
The survey called 495 randomly selected households with eligible voters and 2,168 mobile phone numbers. It yielded responses from 428 household members and 627 mobile phone users.
The parts of Ishikawa Prefecture affected by the Noto Peninsula earthquake were excluded from the survey.
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