Japan Suga’s eldest son’suspect hospitality’ as a fact… Disciplined by 11 executives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga lowered his head again at the National Assembly on the 22nd. The suspicion that a son who works for a satellite broadcasting company has been entertaining a senior official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is revealed to be true. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is planning to discipline 11 public officials involved for violating the code of ethics.

An article by Shukanbunshun that reported that Japanese Prime Minister Suga’s son had a dinner with the officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Reporter Lee Young-hee

The suspicion began on the 4th with a report by the Japanese weekly magazine Shukanbun-shun (週刊文春). Shukanbun-shun raised suspicion of illegal entertainment with photos, saying that Suga’s eldest son Seigo was caught having dinner with senior officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications four times from October to December last year.

Seigo is in charge of entertainment-related general manager in the media division of the satellite broadcasting business company’Tohoku Shinsha’. It was observed that there must have been a solicitation in that they met senior executives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications who had the right to license satellite broadcasting at the time of the company’s channel re-approval screening.

After the report, the executives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications acknowledged the fact of the dinner, but revealed that “we did not talk about the satellite broadcasting business.” However, when Shukanbun-shun released the audio file recorded at the dinner party through an online site, a situation different from this explanation was revealed. According to this file, Suga’s son Seigo mentioned terms related to the broadcasting business, such as’BS’ and’Star (channel)’ several times at a dinner party.

According to the ethical regulations of the Japanese National Public Officials Ethics Act, public officials are not allowed to receive entertainment for which the’stakeholders’ bear all expenses. You are supposed to report it.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is holding a meeting on the Fukushima earthquake on the 14th. [AFP=연합뉴스]

As a result of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ self-investigation, Yasuhiko Tanawaki, General Affairs Officer, Mabito Yoshida, General Affairs Officer, Yoshinori Akimoto, Director of Information Distribution Administration, Yumoto Hironobu, released in weekly magazine In addition to the people, a total of 12 officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications were found to have had a total of 38 dinners with Prime Minister Suga’s son and Tohoku Shinsha officials.

It was revealed that Yamada Makiko, the prefectural cabinet public affairs officer, was also entertained by the eldest son of Prime Minister Suga in November 2019, who was also a general affairs deliberation officer at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The person who received the most entertainment was the General Affairs Officer Tanawaki, who received a total of 118,000 yen (about 1.24 million won) worth of food, taxi coupons, and gifts at four dinners with Tohoku Shinsha.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported the findings to the House of Representatives Budget Committee on the 22nd, and admitted that 11 out of 13 people are likely to fall under’entertainment from stakeholders’ under the ethics regulations of state officials. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications plans to impose disciplinary action on them, such as dismissal for violations of ethics regulations.

Prime Minister Suga, who initially denied relevance, saying, “It’s just a son’s job,” eventually apologized. However, the excommunication is expected to continue.

The opposition party is questioning whether Prime Minister Suga’s son used his father’s influence to influence the decision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. However, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications argued that although it was true that entertainment was held at the National Assembly on that day, it had no effect on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ judgment regarding satellite broadcasting licensing.

Tokyo = Correspondent Lee Young-hee [email protected]