MOSCOW, (Sputnik) – A vast majority of Japanese voters say the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) cannot restore trust with reforms as a corruption scandal continues to rattle Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s cabinet, a poll by the Kyodo news agency showed on Sunday.
The survey found that 87% of respondents believe that reforms drawn up in the LDP’s interim report are not enough for it to regain public trust, versus just 9.7% who say the opposite.
Kishida’s cabinet saw its approval rating falling by a further 2.8 percentage points to the second-lowest mark of 24.5% in the same Kyodo poll following revelations that several groups in the big-tent LDP diverted fundraised money to slush funds to then distribute it among their members.
Almost 85% of those polled said LDP lawmakers who had failed to report income from fundraising parties needed to explain what they used the money for, while 83.4% said they were dissatisfied with the lack of criminal charges against the executives within the party groups.
The phone survey was conducted among 1,055 Japanese aged 18 and over from February 3-5.
