Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Tokyo/AFP Yonhap News
The suspicion that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s son had been entertaining a central government official related to his business has turned out to be true. It is a new bad news for Prime Minister Suga, whose approval rating is plummeting, called a’family scandal’. The Japanese weekly magazine reported in the latest issue on the 4th that Seigo, 39, the eldest son of Prime Minister Suga, who works for a satellite broadcasting company, was entertained by an executive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications with the right to license and license broadcasting. Four executives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said that they received hospitality from Tohoku Shinsha, the company he attends, while Seigo was present four times from October to December last year. Tohoku Shinsha has satellite broadcasting channels such as star channels and Go/janggi channels. These channels operate with the approval of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The prime minister’s son Seigo has been working for the company since 2008. The weekly magazine emphasized that “Tohoku Shinsha’s broadcasting business has grown dramatically with the approval and permission of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.” Director Akimoto, one of the executives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications who was suspicious of receiving hospitality, said it was true that he had a dinner with the Prime Minister’s eldest son at the House Budget Committee that day. Director Akimoto also admitted that he received expenses for dinner and transportation. Takashi Nishio, a special professor at the International Christian University, pointed out that “a public official having a dinner with a stakeholder corresponds to’receiving entertainment and hospitality’, which is prohibited by the ethics regulations of the national public official.” Regarding this, Prime Minister Suga called Seigo and said, “If you enter into an investigation, cooperate with us.” I said I did. By Kim So-yeon, staff reporter [email protected]