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Japan’s Politicians Keep Dining Out While Telling Everyone to Stay Home

Japanese politicians are caught not following their own public health advice.
Japanese politicians caught breaking their own ru
Japanese politicians are flouting their own rules on dining out. Photo: Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP

Japanese politicians keep getting caught at bars and restaurants past the prefecture’s 8 p.m. bedtime.

Jun Matsumoto, a 70-year-old lawmaker, was spotted club-hopping in Ginza on Tuesday hours past the de facto curfew, local media reported. 

Kiyohiko Toyama, another lawmaker, drank in bars in Tokyo’s Ginza neighborhood with an acquaintance late into the night, while other citizens stayed home to contain a worsening COVID-19 outbreak that is threatening to derail Japan’s plan to hold the Olympic Games in July.

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Both politicians have apologized for breaking their own rules. But the damage to the government’s public health messaging was already done.

Tokyo is one of 11 prefectures put under a state of emergency in Japan. In an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has urged citizens in those prefectures to remain indoors past 8 p.m. He’s also asked restaurants and bars to close at that time to encourage people to stay at home.

But instead of leading by example, members of the political elite have flouted these recommendations, frustrating many citizens.

“If these politicians are in a position to tell citizens to refrain from eating out, but they themselves are still going out, then people will only distrust them more. The people won’t listen,” Mei Kitamura, a 21-year-old college student, told VICE World News.

Japan has reported over 375,000 infections, and the government has struggled to persuade people in the 20s, who make up a fifth of these cases, to adopt social distancing measures.

Politicians have repeatedly expressed their frustration with this age group, with some exhorting them to read more newspapers and listen to the government’s messages

But their failure to observe their own rules doesn’t help.

Last month, Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary-general of Suga’s cabinet, was found to have hosted a dinner for eight politicians and celebrities at a swanky steak house.

Just earlier that day, Suga said he would suspend a campaign to boost domestic travel to curb coronavirus infections. The prime minister himself was photographed at the dinner as well, though he said he was only dropped in to say hi.

Seiko Hashimoto, the minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympics, was spotted having a sushi dinner with five other people the same month, one more than what the government recommends for dining out. Hashimoto said she ran into two people by coincidence. But Shukan Bunshun, a Japanese magazine, reported the entire restaurant was booked out under her name.

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