Tokyo, Nov. 28, 2020—Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, this week was struggling to defend his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, from possible prosecution for the violation of the country’s political donation law. As Suga is grilled in parliament for his blunder in handling the surging Covid-19 infection cases, his effort to protect the man who appointed Suga as successor may not last long. If prosecutors swoop in on Abe himself, Suga may be forced to step down or if lucky, call a snap general election. It could happen over the next several weeks, and that is believed to be the reason why Suga resisted calls for dissolving the lower house of parliament in January.
For years, Abe has been the target of media reporting for his and his wife’s questionable involvement in many transactions, most notably, the so-called Moritomo and Kakei campus building projects that his acquaintances had asked for Abe’s help. One of the two projects fell through. Now, the public attention is spotted on the payments of cherry blossom garden parties he hosted over the past five years. The law bans lawmakers from footing bills for hosting parties for political donors, and Abe’s office is suspected to have trashed receipts of bills from the hotel where the parties were held.
This week, Suga was grilled in parliamentary sessions and failed to give convincing replies on Abe. Plus, Suga has failed to curb surging Covid-19 cases, and his foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi was overwhelmed by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi during aTokyo bilateral sitting ‘like a dumb duck’ as Wang ferociously attacked Japan over sovereign issues of the Senkaku Islands.
(https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwji-fjph6TtAhVoxIsBHYrwCjYQxfQBCEowAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fenglish.kyodonews.net%2Fnews%2F2020%2F11%2F173cd2c707a8-2-key-abe-staff-may-have-led-decision-to-illegally-cover-dinner-cost.html&usg=AOvVaw2iWIPg9QkfXuh7-QBqHVn6)
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