Tokyo

The Japanese government has canceled the prime minister’s annual cherry blossom-viewing party next year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday, a decision that is apparently aimed at appeasing opposition lawmakers.

The government will review the state-funded party held every April by clarifying the criteria for choosing guests, aiming to resume the event as early as 2021.

Opposition lawmakers have accused Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of using taxpayer money for his own interest, claiming that guests to the party include many of his supporters. “I decided on the cancellation at my own discretion,” Abe told reporters.

The prime minister apparently wants to draw a curtain on the issue at an early date to minimize its negative impact on his administration. He grapples with the aftermath of the recent resignations of two ministers and controversy over the use of private English tests for university entrance exams.

But opposition lawmakers are still poised to grill Abe at parliament over the party. “What the Abe cabinet has so far done can’t be canceled out,” Jun Azumi, parliamentary affairs chief at the major opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters.

Suga told a news conference that the government had to make a decision on the event before full-fledged budget compilation work for fiscal 2020 begins later this year.

The government will consider shrinking the size of the party and inviting guests from areas affected by natural disasters if it resumes the event, Suga said.

He also said that the Cabinet Secretariat had asked the prime minister, deputy prime minister, chief cabinet secretary, deputy chief cabinet secretaries and ruling party lawmakers to recommend guests to the event.

This procedure has been in place even before Abe took office, Suga said. “We’ve come to a conclusion that we should review the longtime practice fully,” he said.

[Jiji Press]