Abe cabinet's approval rating plunges amid scandal: polls

TOKYO - The approval rating for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet has plunged again amid renewed attention on a cronyism scandal implicating Abe and his wife Akie, multiple media polls have showed.

According to a Kyodo News poll released on Sunday, approval rating for the prime minister's cabinet dropped to 38.7 percent, down 9.4 percentage points from a previous survey conducted on March 3 and March 4, while the disapproval rating stood at 48.2 percent, up 9.2 points.

Among the respondents, 43.8 percent said Abe should step down as prime minister after more evidence came to light about state's influence in the shady land deal, while 47.6 percent said he doesn't need to do so.

A total of 66.1 percent said Abe should be held accountable for the Finance Ministry's tampering of documents linked to the dubious land deal in a widely-suspected attempt to cover up the scandal, while 25.8 percent said otherwise.

Among the respondents, 65.3 percent said Abe's wife Akie should testify at the parliament, while only 29.0 percent said it was not necessary.

According to another survey released by Jiji Press on Friday, the cabinet's support rate has plunged to 39.3 percent, down 9.4 percentage points from a month earlier, while the disapproval rate stood at 40.4 percent, up 8.5 points, marking the first time since last October that the support rate was lower than the disapproval rate.

Moritomo Gakuen, a private-school operator, reportedly bought a 8,770-square-meter piece of land in June 2016 in Toyonaka, Osaka prefecture, for 134 million yen (1.26 million U.S. dollars), equivalent to only 14 percent of its appraisal price.

The land had been intended for a new elementary school to be opened in April last year with Abe's wife Akie as its honorary principal, though she has since stepped down as the scandal expands.

The prime minister has since denied that he or his wife was involved in the shady deal, while Yasunori Kagoike, head of the school operator, gave sworn testimony in both chambers of parliament, stating that he believed the land deal involved "politicians' intervention."

Japan's Finance Ministry admitted earlier this week to knowingly altering documents on a cut-price land deal scandal, which drew renewed attention to the scandal and requests from the opposition camp and the public for deeper investigations and for the government to be held accountable.