Suga under fire for year-end dinners as coronavirus cases mount

Hello, I'm a Japanese politician. We are all hypocrites and white collared criminals. Nice to meet you.

Idiot.

"It is important to make individual decisions, based on balancing between purposes of group meals and infection control measures," 

You know, as much as I'd wanna pass this off as keeping up with appearances and the need to be visible as a public official, common sense and better reasoning should've prevailed in this. If CV-19 cases are on the rise, then mass gatherings should be out of the question. But then again, this is also the man who still wants to push the travel subsidy program despite the growing COVID-19 cases. At least he's consistent.

@Shogun: You are funny.

I wonder if Suga and his buddies used GoToEat campaign coupons. Have not read about those being cancelled.

Shear madness! how can the government expect any one to listen to them when they break the rules like this?

This guy lives on another planet!!

What a joke of a PM.

Where to begin.

The blatant hypocrisy?

The almost comically stereotypical Ginza wining and dining?

The fact that these all appear to be old men and therefore in a high risk group?

The assumption then that they are all just too rich and famous to be seriously affected by the virus?

I'm beginning to think that Suga's reign at the top will be a very brief one indeed.

A crook

Love to know who came up with the plan and who picked up the tab. Go to Eat?

Hardly suprising. Japanese culture works on a 3 tier system.

There is one law for the rich, one law for the poor, and one law for foreigners..

Dangerous hypocrites.

Go to eat has been cancelled for weeks in Tokyo..

Keep up!

If Suga ( and others) can't hold up the rules or set examples for the people, I don't see how we can hold him and other guilty influencials to anything else.

They have to pat each other on the back nobody else will! Bunch of losers. Someone should tell them you earn respect a badge on your lapel just tells people you are a non convicted criminal,,

Cool down, that’s one of the country’s smallest problems. Just consider them having a difficult childhood during or after the war and now finally reaching out for some life, while we had a nice childhood and youth and now face severe difficulties. They don’t become significantly richer or fatter with that delicious meal and we don’t become significantly poorer with it as we already are.

There is one law for the rich, one law for the poor, and one law for foreigners..

It is not about being rich, it is about having heritage. You can be a new rich but still get treated like the poor because of lack of heritage.

Japan pretty much is like the old feudal system days, where nobles are immune to any laws and everyone else are just peasants and slaves to be sucked of wealth by the nobles. The whole "stimulus" and "Go To campaign" is just a cover to funnel large amount of money the political families, especially the Go To campaign clearly made to funnel large amount of taxpayer money to support the Nikai faction families.

He said, she said... I don't care where Suga went to eat and how many times. This is not news to me. Oh, I forgot, this is Japan, so who ate what becomes a matter of gravest importance.

Here you go Suga-san..."Practice what you preach"

Not saying there isn't anything good here... It's good for a one-week vacation. Soft seats on the trains. Fujisan, kimono, sakura. Try not to catch foot fungus in the onsen and e.coli in the sushi... 15 flavors of Kit-Kat... Sayonara very much.

Difficult.

To run a country you need to network and nothing is better than alcohol to open up.

difficult.

Japan is reasonably one of the least affected countries from SARS-CoV-2, suicides being 10x more deaths.

difficult.

japanese small businesses, especially service industry rely on this season to feed their kids, pay rent, loans, mortgages etc.

difficult.

he/they are Hippocrates that use our tax money for Kaiseki dining and Snack bars.

100 sit ups not really a qualification for leadership.

"telling parliament on Wednesday there was no enforced rule about group meals."

There's also no enforced rules about closing before nine, no enforced rules about social distancing, mask wearing, spitting on the ground, vomiting in public all over train station steps after such parties, spraying others as we drink and shout and be merry... etc. So, should we do all these things, too?

One set of "rules" for the government and celebs, one set for the rest of us.

Suga and the PM's are basically ciphers. This hypocrisy and misappropriation of funds is a drop in the bucket and may cause his downfall and another LDP cipher will be in. Yet the Olympics ,GoTo and corporate bailout coronavirus graft and fraud programs will continue without a hitch.

Suga is a 'Deadman Walking' and rightly so.

He offers nothing........nothing at all.

He is an Abe Mini-me without even Abe's minuscule amount of charisma.

I am so surprised that Japan's 'kanji of the year' was 'Mitsu' it should be 'Moribund' or however you write it in Japanese.

He has to get his chop off tax payers’ money for a free feed and drinks.

瀕死

Hinshi

(moribund - in terminal decline; lacking vitality or vigour.)

@spitfire what should he be offering? and so now, Abe has charisma?? That's a bit odd.

If they took the necessary precautions, which I am sure that they did given the microscope that they work under, I personally do not see the problem.

They have to run the country and that involves meeting peeps.

I don't see Suga in snack bars...just not that kind of dude.

I think I am kind of left but reading the above comments, makes me verge right.

Let the down votes begin.

The new campaign is....’Go to Eat Steak!’

Go to let them eat cake?

GoodlucktoyouToday  05:33 pm JST

he/they are Hippocrates that use our tax money for Kaiseki dining and Snack bars.

Hmm, I don't think Hippocrates has had many steak dinners in quite a while- He's been dead for nearly 2400 years.

Besides, as a man of medicine it would have made him a bit of a hypocrite to partake...

I give him another 7 months at best. At least Abe had charisma and mastered the artful act of deflection. Suga has no personality whatsoever. Perfect for a government spokesman, not leader material

Sounds like Gavin Newsom and London Breed in my State of birth in the US (California). I guess this trend is in Japan now.

Cant these people lead by example? Or lead at all?

Arrogance

well that didn't take long. sad

I feel so stupid for paying so much tax to pay for these dumbfuggs good time.

Normally I wouldn't care but the dummy just told the rest of the nation not to do this.

Rules for thee, not for me. This is the very reason hundreds of thousands of people are signing a petition to get our governor in California out of office.

Another attendee, Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said the dinner guests took off masks to eat but were careful enough.

In other words, they ordered their steaks well-done.

This happens all around the world, but the politicians' utter disregard for their constituents in this country is really something different.

so from Abe to Suga and nothing changed, Abe implemented higher tax then runaway and this guy comes and go for parties while we have covid19, amazing leadership

He seems at least better than Trump.

Sven AsaiToday  05:13 pm JST

Cool down, that’s one of the country’s smallest problems.

One of the country's biggest problems is that these old boys and their chums have a well nigh unshakeable grip on the government and the economy.

Suga face resembles a Japanese kappa who deceives everyone. Take him seriously you might get hurt

This old man has nothing to gain in helping you and in. Let him enjoy his grayish life who knows how long he be healthy just let the old man enjoy life he got left

He seems at least better than Trump.

That's an incredibly low bar to set for competence in our elected officials. You could replace 'better' with almost any adjective even the most hapless human would appear able.

Suga I'm elite, rules don't apply to me only you. Suga says Go To Eat, wear a mask BUT I WON'T play by the rules

Hardly surprising, after all this whole thing is just a show of power over the masses