Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who suffered backing support over his virus management, has been criticized for rejecting government advice to hold small meetings by attending a luxury steak dinner with various celebrities.
The 72-year-old took part in a restaurant in Tokyo’s elegant Ginza district on Monday, shortly after announcing that the government would suspend its incentive program to travel during the New Year’s holidays amid a record spread of coronavirus. There were about eight people at the dinner, FNN television reported, against the government’s advice to hold meetings at four or less.
“There was a lot of distance with other people, but I’m sincerely thinking about causing a misunderstanding,” Suga told reporters Wednesday. He added that the situation is being taken seriously after Japan is launched a record number of confirmed infections over the weekend and experts have warned of the high risks of eating and drinking with other people.
The event tended to Twitter on Wednesday morning and was a staple of gossip TV shows, showing images of those leaving the restaurant and there were panels asking what Suga was thinking. Opposition Constitutional Democratic Party General Secretary Tetsuro Fukuyama said Suga should have shown restraint.
“The prime minister’s calendar is published and he is sending a message to the public, so I want him to think about it carefully,” Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of Suga’s coalition partner party Komeito, told reporters on Tuesday.
Suga’s food gaffe comes when several politicians have been criticized for acting against the advice of his own government. That includes California Gov. Gavin Newsom, yes he repeatedly apologized for rejecting state guidelines on socializing by attending a birthday party at a famous state wine restaurant last month.
Taciturn son of a strawberry farmer, Suga enjoyed public support rates in excess of 60% when he was installed in September as the new prime minister since 2012, replacing Shinzo Abe, who resigned in due to ill health. Three months later, a poll by public broadcaster NHK published on Tuesday that approval had dropped by 14 percentage points, to 42%, and most respondents said they disapproved of the management of their virus.
Suga inherited the remaining year of Abe’s tenure as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party in government. With the clock ticking in the elections to be held before the end of the term of the lower house on October 21, Suga will have to bolster his support if he wants to broadcast this year over a longer period in place of Japan’s most important work.
Asked about the steak dinner in parliament on Wednesday, Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said there was no general ban on meetings of five or more people. “We ask people to avoid them as much as possible,” he said.
– With the assistance of Emi Nobuhiro, Hiroyuki Sekine and Kana Nishizawa
(Updates with Suga’s comment in the third paragraph)