Tokyo: The record-low public support rate for the Liberal Democratic Party in the latest Jiji Press opinion survey has sent ripples of shock throughout Japan’s ruling party.

According to the January survey released Thursday, support for the LDP dropped 3.7 percentage points from the previous month to 14.6 percentage points, the lowest since Jiji Press started the monthly survey in 1960, excluding the periods when the LDP was an opposition party.

The falling support for the LDP is due to a political funds scandal involving LDP factions.

“The figures represent the reality we are in,” said a member of the cabinet of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who also heads the LDP. “I felt the public confidence in our party had declined when I visited my home turf.”

The scandal involving slush funds created through fundraising parties hosted by LDP factions has led to the dissolutions of the three groups that had related people charged with violating the political funds control law.

Kishida on Friday announced that his faction will be dissolved, while a faction previously led by the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and another currently headed by former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai each decided to disband.

Public support for the LDP floated around 21–24 percent between January and October last year, according to Jiji Press surveys. Support for the party was somewhat stable, considering the cabinet approval rate recovered to 38.2 percent in May last year from 26.5 percent last January before dropping to 26.3 percent in October.

Support for the LDP has been falling rapidly since November, around the time media reports on the political funds scandal started to come out.

After slumping to 19.1 percent in the November survey, the support rate for the party dropped further to 18.3 percent in December and then to 14.6 percent this month.

The cabinet approval rate was 17.1 percent last month and 18.6 percent this month.

Only a handful of LDP-led administrations in the past have seen the party support rate fall below 20 percent, not even when the party was embroiled in the so-called Recruit Co. stock-for-favors scandal in 1988-1989.

The first time the public support for the LDP fell below 20 percent was June 1995 under the coalition government of the LDP, the Japan Socialist Party and New Party Sakigake that was led by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.

Later, the LDP approval rate fell below 20 percent during the administrations of Ryutaro Hashimoto, Yoshiro Mori, Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso.

Up until the January 2024 survey result, the lowest LDP support rate excluding the periods when the LDP was not in power was 15.1 percent logged in July 2009 under then Prime Minister Aso. The LDP fell from power by losing the House of Representatives election held the following month.

Currently, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Innovation Party), both in the opposition side, are struggling to boost their support rates from around 3-4 percent despite the LDP’s plight.

By contrast, the proportion of members of the public not supporting any particular political party rose 4.3 points to 66.8 percent in this month’s survey.

If a party rises to the occasion to gather support from people critical of the current Kishida administration, the LDP may be put in a trickier spot.

Speaking to the press Friday, Kishida apologized for the political funds scandal, adding that the LDP political reform headquarters will discuss preventative measures.

“There is no way that (the public approval rate) will rise in the current situation,” especially since the LDP is expected to come under even stronger criticism from opposition parties, a veteran lawmaker said.

JIJI Press