Blossom scandal whirls around prime minister

Japan’s prime minister is embroiled in a deepening scandal over claims that he used a cherry blossom party to illegally reward political supporters.

Shinzo Abe has repeatedly changed his story about dinners at a luxury Tokyo hotel on the eve of the government’s annual cherry blossom viewing party. He has been so rattled that he had to apologise after losing his temper during parliamentary questions on the subject.

The 10-day blossoming of the sakura, or cherry trees, in March and April is a time of parties and picnicking. The prime minister’s event in the Shinjuku Gyoen park, a former imperial garden in central Tokyo, is the most prestigious. It began 68 years ago, attended by a few thousand guests including members of the imperial family, senior politicians, ambassadors and journalists.

Under Abe, the guest list – and the cost of the publicly funded event – have soared. Last year’s event cost more than twice the budget of 17.7 million yen (NZ$250,818) and 18,200 people turned up, including celebrities and guests from Abe’s constituency in Yamaguchi prefecture.

The prime minister has said his office suggested names but that it was the job of civil servants to decide if they were worthy enough to be invited.

Sunday’s Asahi newspaper quoted cabinet office sources denying this, suggesting that invitations to the taxpayerfunded event were used by Abe as a reward to his supporters.

Attention has now shifted to an annual dinner held the night before for 850 Abe supporters. It centres on whether Abe’s political organisation made the arrangements, in which case it would legally have had to report takings and expenditure.

Abe, 65, denies this, saying that guests paid the 5000 yen cost of the evening, and handed over the money directly. This has been contradicted by the hotel that hosted the event.

‘‘It overturns the basis used by the prime minister to make his counterarguments and claim, ‘I broke no law’,’’ said Yukio Edano, head of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.

The scandal makes it less likely that Abe will extend his term as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party beyond its limit next year. – The Times