JAPANESE Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he would reshuffle his Cabinet, following reports he would fire four ministers as a wide-spread scandal raised questions about how long he would be able to stay in power.

“From the perspective of restoring trust in politics, and avoiding delays in government business, I will make personnel changes,” Kishida told reporters in Tokyo on Wednesday (Dec 13). He added he was still considering the content of the reshuffle, which would be announced on Thursday.

The four ministers to be replaced include Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, the top government spokesman, as well as trade minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, a key player in Japan’s efforts to revive its semiconductor industry, according to Kyodo News and other media.

They are among members of Kishida’s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) accused of concealing income from fundraising events, who may face questioning by prosecutors as soon as this evening.

The removal is equal to about a fifth of the Cabinet. The scandal has rocked the biggest of the five factions in the LDP and appears set to spread even wider.

The extent of alleged involvement by Cabinet ministers and senior party officials has invited comparisons with the so-called Recruit affair of the late 1980s, when allegations of insider trading felled then-Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita.

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The turmoil also threatens Kishida’s policy programme, as he tries to push through measures to shield voters from the effects of inflation and seeks ways to fund his plans for the largest defence expansion since World War II.

“This is really a crisis situation,” said Natsuo Yamaguchi, the head of Kishida’s coalition partner party Komeito. “We must clear up the political funding problem with no half measures and then think about how to start over again from fundamentals.”

Already the least popular premier in more than a decade according to several polls due in part to rising inflation, Kishida has seen his support tumble further on the scandal. While no general election need be held until 2025, one LDP lawmaker has suggested Kishida could step down as soon as the spring, which would make way for another party lawmaker to take over.

Polling has shown major opposition groups with support rates in the single digits, indicating the LDP would stay in power when the next election is held.

All four are members of the party faction formerly led by late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the largest in the LDP, which has remained leaderless since his assassination more than a year ago. Former foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is being considered as a replacement for Matsuno, TV Asahi reported, without saying where it got the information.

Most lawmakers in the LDP are in one of the major factions that for years have acted as parties within the party, raising their own funds and promoting their members for ministerial positions.

Koichi Hagiuda, the head of the LDP’s policy research council is set to resign, public broadcaster NHK said on Wednesday, in a move that could delay deliberations on next year’s budget. Kishida is also reported to be considering calling off a trip to South America that had been planned for January.

“We are unlikely to see major changes in direction despite this scandal,” said Kristi Govella, director of the Center for Indo-Pacific Affairs at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “However, we may see a decrease in Kishida’s ability to focus on foreign policy as his attention is pulled closer to home.”

The allegations involve lawmakers who are thought to have failed to declare income gained from selling tickets to fundraising events, in violation of the campaign financing law.

While other factions, including Kishida’s own, are facing similar allegations over slush funds, prosecutors are targeting the Abe group because its actions were systematic and involved larger amounts of money, the Yomiuri said on Wednesday.

The Abe faction slush fund may amount to as much as one billion yen (S$9.2 million), the paper said, citing a source close to the matter. Faction lawmakers implicated in the scandal have declined to make substantive comments to address the accusations. BLOOMBERG