(Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida plans to dissolve his political faction after a slush-fund scandal roiling the ruling party spread to his own inner circle and a wave of indictments, renewing pressure on his leadership just as support ratings had started to recover. 

“I will dissolve the faction in order to restore the confidence in politics,” Kishida told reporters on Friday.

The premier had recently stepped down as leader of his faction as the scandal rippled across his party. He had served as chairman since 2012. Shortly after Kishida’s announcement, Tokyo prosecutors said they indicted eight people over the alleged fundraising transgressions including a former treasurer from the prime minister’s faction. 

After setting a string of fresh lows, the prime minister’s support ratings in some surveys had just begun to edge higher after his administration’s response to a New Year’s Day earthquake in the nation’s northwest won approval. The spread of the slush-fund scandal to Kishida’s own faction may reverse that recovery in forthcoming polls.

While no general election has to be held until 2025, this may increase the possibility of Kishida losing his position before his term officially ends in September. His faction is the fourth-largest within the LDP, and these internal camps can play a key role in determining who is elected premier and who gets posts in the cabinet.

Veteran LDP heavyweight Toshihiro Nikai also announced his intention to wind up his own smaller faction within the party. 

The party’s largest faction, which used to be led by former premier Shinzo Abe, is also discussing dissolution, according to Kyodo News. The Abe faction was the first to be implicated in the scandal.

--With assistance from Takashi Hirokawa and Yuki Hagiwara.

(Updates with report of indictments and other details)

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