By Joy Kyalo
Japan Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has drawn criticism for joining end of year social gatherings after imploring residents to avoid such parties as the country sees record numbers of coronavirus cases.
Despite his own public warnings against large group meals, Suga went ahead with a series of get-togethers this week, stirring up criticism from politicians and social media users, including his party’s coalition partner.
On Tuesday evening, government spokesman Katsunobu Kato also said the prime minister had taken necessary precautions for the gatherings.
“It is important to make individual decisions, based on balancing between purposes of group meals and infection control measures,” Kato told a regular press conference.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, the country’s economy minister in charge of coronavirus policies, defended Suga’s gatherings, telling parliament on Wednesday there was no enforced rule about group meals.
On Monday night, Suga joined six others including senior officials at the ruling party gathered at a high-end steak restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza district. All of them are over 70s.
Leaving the restaurant, a 76-year-old actor Ryotaro Sugi told reporters it was a “year-end party”, where they talked about baseball.
Suga’s outings came after the government abruptly halted a government travel subsidy programme he had long defended, the latest wrangle to overshadow his first months in power.
“The prime minister’s schedule has a message to the people, so I would like to see due consideration,” said Natsuo Yamaguchi, head of the ruling party’s junior partner, Komeito.
The Tokyo metropolitan government has today reported 678 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours in the Japanese capital.
The latest figure marked a new record for a single-day tally in Tokyo, surpassing the previous record of 621 coronavirus infections reported last Saturday.
Due to the surge in coronavirus cases in Japan and especially in urban areas recently, the government said on Monday that it will suspend the “Go To Travel” campaign during the upcoming holiday period and that Tokyo will be excluded from the subsidized tourism program beginning Friday due to high numbers of COVID-19 cases.