Japanese prime minister: Sorry for false statements
TOKYO — Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan apologized Thursday for what he said were unintentionally false statements about a political spending scandal that has tarred the first months of his administration.
The apology came hours after Japanese prosecutors said they would seek to fine an aide to Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister, over alleged violations of political spending rules.
Prosecutors said Abe himself will not be charged, an unusual statement that appeared to be aimed at quelling media speculation about his fate.
Suga, who succeeded Abe as prime minister in September, has not been accused of wrongdoing. Still, he spent Abe’s nearly eight years in office as his top spokesman and political fixer, defending him to the news media and in Japan’s parliament against allegations of wrongdoing.
The fallout of Abe’s scandal — involving several alleged violations of the country’s election and political financing laws — has tarnished Suga’s administration, which is already reeling from public anger over its handling of the coronavirus. The prime minister’s poll numbers have dropped precipitously from a high of around 65% when he took office to 39% in a poll by The Asahi Shimbun, a daily newspaper, taken last weekend.
Prosecutors are calling for Hiroyuki Haikawa, a 61-yearold former aide to Abe, to be punished under an abbreviated legal process reserved for relatively minor infractions liable for fines of about $10,000. The announcement effectively ensures that the accusations will never be aired in a public court hearing.
Suga Haikawa stands accused of underreporting by hundreds of thousands of dollars the amount paid using campaign funds for banquets for Abe’s political supporters. The dinners were held over a period of four years at a luxury hotel in Tokyo ahead of an annual cherry blossom viewing party hosted by the prime minister.
Abe and Suga have both consistently denied any wrongdoing. But after the prosecutors’ announcement, both found themselves apologizing for making false statements to parliament, saying that they had unintentionally misrepresented the facts.
Speaking to reporters Thursday evening, a pale and trembling Suga said that in the process of defending Abe he had responded to questions from parliament with “replies that differed from the facts. In regards to this, I express my deepest apologies to the nation.”
In comments echoing Suga’s, Abe apologized for previous statements about the scandal, which he said “were contrary to the truth,” but added that he had not been informed about the underreporting and that the inaccuracies were unintentional.
The amounts involved in the accusations against Haikawa might seem small by the standards of political corruption in other countries, but they were big news in Japan, where politicians have been booted out of office for seemingly minor violations of campaign-finance rules, such as giving away potatoes.
The cherry blossom party, which has been hosted by Japan’s prime ministers since the 1950s and is paid for with public funds, became the center of a major scandal last year when it was revealed that Abe and his allies had invited thousands of political supporters to attend over the years. Suga helped set the guest lists for the events.
The issue gained steam after officials revealed that they had shredded the proposed guest list for this year’s party after opposition lawmakers requested to see it. Demands for an inquiry followed, and the affair continued to haunt Abe until he resigned in September, citing health issues.
Prosecutors said they would not pursue charges against Abe in relation to the banquets or cherry blossom party because of lack of evidence.
On Twitter, users pilloried the prosecutor’s decision to forgo charges against Abe. Tweets demanding that authorities press charges trended Thursday morning, accompanied by the hashtag “#abenomics,” a play on the name of the former prime minister’s economic revitalization campaign.
Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University and a vocal critic of the former leader, said his Christmas wish was for Santa Claus to imprison Abe in the North Pole.
The indignation reflected widespread frustration with Abe, who weathered several influence-peddling scandals during his time as the country’s longest-serving prime minister — a record that he achieved on the back of strong economic growth, in part through his reform efforts and his skillful handling of President Donald Trump.