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The Kishida Cabinet’s approval rating rose to 26 percent while the disapproval rating fell to 62 percent after the ruling party doled out punishments over a fund scandal, a weekend Asahi Shimbun survey showed.

The approval rating for the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has remained under 30 percent for seven consecutive months since October, and it hit a record-low 21 percent in February.

But the rate has since inched upward. In the previous survey in March, the approval rating was 22 percent while the disapproval rating was 67 percent.

Kishida’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party on April 9 punished 39 lawmakers over a political fund scandal that dealt a serious blow to the party and the Cabinet.

The latest approval rating is one point above the 25 percent recorded in November after the scandal involving underreported revenues from fund-raising parties came under full-fledged Diet scrutiny.

In the nationwide telephone survey conducted on April 20-21, the LDP’s support rating also increased to 26 percent from 22 percent in March.

The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan received support from 6 percent of respondents, unchanged from March, and Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party) gained 4 percent, also unchanged.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents disapproved of Kishida’s handling of the political fund scandal, down from 81 percent in March, while 16 percent approved, up from 13 percent.

Sixty-seven percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the LDP’s punishment against the 39 lawmakers, compared with 24 percent who said they were satisfied.

A total of 85 LDP Diet members failed to list revenues from fund-raising parties held by intraparty factions on their organizations’ political fund income and expenditures reports.

The LDP did not take any disciplinary action against Kishida, the party president.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the LDP’s inaction against Kishida, compared with 24 percent who said they were satisfied.

An overwhelming 92 percent of respondents said the truth about the scandal has not been determined, while 5 percent said it has been revealed.

Kishida visited the United States as a state guest and met with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on April 10.

Forty-four percent of respondents approved of the Japan-U.S. summit, slightly more than the 39 percent who disapproved.

Voters were asked who they thought would be the right person for prime minister now from among eight LDP Diet members.

Former LDP Secretary-General Shigeru Ishiba topped the list with 19 percent of respondents preferring him, compared with 18 percent in the March survey.

He was followed by former Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi with 14 percent, unchanged from March.

Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Taro Kono, minister for digital transformation, tied for the third with 8 percent.

Sanae Takaichi, minister in charge of economic security, came in fifth with 7 percent, followed by Kishida, who was chosen by 6 percent of respondents.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi and LDP Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi each received 1 percent.

The largest bloc of voters, 33 percent, chose “there is no such person on the list,” up from 31 percent in the March survey.

The survey was conducted through calls to randomly generated telephone numbers. There were 462 valid responses from voters contacted by fixed telephones, or 50 percent of the total, and 628 responses from those contacted by cellphones, or 39 percent.

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