Tokyo
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not violate the public offices election law over annual cherry blossom-viewing parties he hosted, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday.
Inviting supporters of Abe to the parties does not constitute acts of vote-buying or wining and dining prohibited under the law, Suga said at a House of Councillors meeting.
Suga’s comments came after opposition lawmaker Hiroyuki Konishi pointed out that party participants received invitations in Abe’s name and were given fancy meals and presents.
There were no acts of vote-buying or wining and dining because guests were selected by the Cabinet Secretariat and the Cabinet Office, Suga said.
The food and drinks served at this year’s party cost 1,204 yen per person, said Yukihiro Otsuka, director-general of the minister’s secretariat at the Cabinet Office.
Suga said that guests recommended by Abe’s wife, Akie, were included in Abe’s recommendation quota of some 1,000 people.
She recommended some guests during the Abe office’s process of seeking participants to the parties, Suga said.
He also said that a few hundred people had been invited to the parties on the recommendation of his own office. Of them, 50 to 60 were related to his support group, he said.
Jiji Press