A former aide to Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama admitted March 29 to cooking the books on political fundraising reports to hide money that came from his boss' family fortune.

In response, prosecutors demanded two years in prison for Hatoyama's former chief accountant, Keiji Katsuba.

The Tokyo District Court is scheduled to hand down a ruling in the trial on April 22.

The funding scandal has hurt the Hatoyama administration, whose approval rating has fallen to 36 percent, down 7 points from February, according to a new poll by the business daily Nikkei.

Katsuba admitted that he misreported tens of millions of yen, saying "nothing is inaccurate" in his indictment.

The 59-year-old has been charged with falsifying reports to make it appear that ¥400 million provided by Hatoyama and his wealthy mother was donated by individual supporters.