Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended a Parliamentary ethics hearing on Thursday, apologizing for his governing party’s corruption scandal and promising not to host any more fundraising parties during his leadership.

The scandal involved individuals from three factions within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)—factions led respectively by the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and former LDP Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai. Several individuals were indicted on January 19 for suspected violations of the Japanese Political Funds Control Act due to an alleged failure to report their factions’ revenue from fundraising events.

Although Kishida himself is not at the center of the scandal, the Prime Minister and LDP leader volunteered to appear at the Thursday hearing to provide an explanation and break the deadlock between opposition parties and the LDP, since several lawmakers involved in the scandal refused to go public.

At the hearing, Kishida said he was “deeply sorry” about the situation and that the LDP would consider formally reprimanding the persons involved and implementing reforms to restore public trust. When questioned by the opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda about the holding of various fundraising parties, Kishida promised not to hold any more such parties during his leadership. In addition, while the root cause of the scandal lies in the underreported excessive income through fundraising parties of the Abe faction, Kishida acknowledged that the malpractice had existed for more than a decade.

Apart from Kishida, Ryota Takeda, former minister for internal affairs and former secretary-general of the Nikai faction testified at the hearing. Another four lawmakers of the Abe faction will appear in a marathon session of opposition questioning on Friday.

Despite Kishida and the LDP’s internal actions over the public trust crisis, including dissolving its own faction and setting tasks to make reform, a poll jointly conducted by Nikkei and TV Tokyo on February 23 to 25 shows that 67 percent of the 867 respondents disapproved of the Kishida Cabinet, while only 25 percent showed approval. 

Kishida came to power as Prime Minister of Japan in October 2021. According to the Japanese Constitution, the next general elections are to be held on October 31, 2025. However, the LDP’s internal presidential election is scheduled for September 2024, leaving doubts over whether Kishida will remain in office by the end of this year.