Private cherry blossom party prompts scandal for Japan’s PM

It might be the most Japanese of political scandals — a furore over Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s 2020 guest list for a party to mark the annual cherry blossom season.

As scandals go, it has plenty of juicy elements — alleged mafia guests, disappearing evidence, even gaffes by Abe, who appeared to lay the blame for shredded documents on a disabled worker.

It’s the latest headache for Japan’s longest-serving premier, who has already weathered two cronyism scandals in recent years and has faced an almost daily drubbing by opposition lawmakers since the scandal emerged in early November.

The outcry involves a tradition that dates back to 1952 — a publicly funded cherry blossom party intended to honour the great and the good for their achievements.

The seemingly innocuous gathering became a lightning rod for criticism after claims Abe had stacked the guest list with about 850 supporters from his local constituency — with the party costing ¥55m (R7.4m) in public money.

Additional allegations piled in — the chair of a disgraced company was once a guest, and a member of one of Japan’s infamous yakuza mafia attended the April 2019 event.

The opposition bloc demanded the guest list for the next event be produced, only to be told it had been shredded on the same day the request was made.

The scandal has seen public support for Abe’s government drop six or seven points to about 50% or lower, but experts said he was likely to weather the storm.

The 2020 cherry blossom party has been cancelled, with Abe promising to “reflect” on how the gathering has been organised.

That would most likely be enough to tide him over, Junichi Takase, professor of politics at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, said.

“Mr Abe is good at handling crises.

“He admitted there was something wrong, appologised, and wants to move on that’s better than lying.