Abe's wife criticized for group shrine visit

His own wife doesn't even follow what he says, why would ordinary Japanese?

What ever happened to 'lead by example"

I've been saying it all along. This group of privileged, spoiled people have no idea what real people are experiencing, and are only thinking about themselves. They don't think of or care about the optics and how it makes them look.

Also, I bet you the group are all people who belong to one of the many support groups that keep funding Abe and the LDP!

Covidiots rule and the common people suffer. I read that NZ PM has declared that she and her cabinet will reduce their pay by 20% for the next six months. Sounds like leading by example. I seriously think that abe, the cabinet and all the bureacrats do the same. I'm sure they'll collect their summer bonuses while all else suffers, and akie will probably go on another tax payer funded trip.

she is a disgrace like her out of touch husband!

“Let them eat cake”

Well hopefully her and her husband ends up with a similar result... out of power.

The ridiculousness of ruling parties in really coming out to ‘shine’ in an emergency.... but who are the 39% who approve? Ostriches?

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife came under fire on social media on Thursday over a report she visited a shrine last month with about 50 people, 

Another example of 'the rich are different', especially when they have a spouse who's a politician. Ivanka Trump in the US did the same thing. Caste systems everywhere.

I love how, when a politician or his/her family does something insane, the "She is a private citizen" gets trotted out as an excuse.

No, in this case she is the First Lady of Japan. She has government employees as her assistants. Her father ran Morinaga. Her husband the Prime Minister of Japan - the longest serving prime minister ever and the son of a well-respected foreign minister and the grandson of a prime minister (Kishi).

She is far, far from a 'private citizen.'

‘Let them eat manju’

However, she is not immune from contracting viral infections. Maybe she accepts the herd theory, if so good luck to her!

opps she did it again....

After these things keep happening again and again, the only explanation I can come up with is that she just doesn't think that rules apply to her. Those are for other people to worry about.

Also, it's not mentioned in the article, but the shrine was in Oita prefecture. Realistically the only way to get from Tokyo to Oita is by air [there's no direct shinkansen link and traveling by highway take a prohibitive amount of time]. So if that is the case, it follows that she and her friends were in the airport and airplane, potentially further spreading the virus in Oita, on an unnecessary trip. Completely irresponsible behavior at this point in time.

borschtToday 08:39 am JST

I love how, when a politician or his/her family does something insane, the "She is a private citizen" gets trotted out as an excuse.

Apologists on twitter were getting this excuse in moments after the story was first broken.

No, in this case she is the First Lady of Japan.

I don't think so. Japan's a constitutional monarchy with the Emperor as head of state, so the Empress is "first lady". The PM's spouse isn't first lady (or first man, if a woman ever became PM).

Her father ran Morinaga.

Her maiden name is Morinaga. Her parents spent their lives fighting the victims of the Morinaga Arsenic poisoning case that killed 113 babies and poisoned 11, 778 in 1955.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-effects-of-japans-1955-poison-milk-coverup-persist-1684903422

http://ww3.tiki.ne.jp/~jcn-o/morinaga-hiso-Englishi-version-byEitaroNOSE-pdf.pdf

She is far, far from a 'private citizen.'

she is a disgrace like her out of touch husband!

brilliantly stated! my hat off to you sir!

Let her eat NATTO! That would be a punishment worse than death!

Japanese politics is morally, culturally and intellectually bankrupt as well as its people being dysfunctional. If Xi Jinping or his wife did something like this in China, there would have been massive rebellions across China.

Shinzo Abe and his LDP cronies do this crap all the times, yet people did not criticize or protest or even care.

@Aly Rastom..

cheers mate gotta say it how it is ain't we....the abe /moringa family really make me sick.

Rustom sorry

@Pukey2

That is even why they morally accepted to close schools first. Not concerned.

If it wasn't a shrine, if it was none of Japan's culture, she wouldn't have been criticized.

Happened before the state of emergency declared April 7. Absolutely no reason to criticize her.

Surely, "Abe's wife must be above suspicion"?

( https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Caesar%27s+wife+must+be+above+suspicion )

I remember that time I met and talked with the First Lady at a bar in Nichome. She’s a very cool in person. It really surprises me she’s acting this way.

@Kyushubill -- all the more reason to criticize; perhaps part of Abe putting off declaring the state of emergency was so that she could make this trip.

That notorious vid of Abe with his doggy... I was wondering where Akie was at that time. Now I know.

If it wasn't a shrine, if it was none of Japan's culture, she wouldn't have been criticized.

I never knew that defying government requests was part of Japanese culture.

Women, are a different species from Men - as any Married Man will know. When they Lay the Law down - and if you disagree with them, they don't care! You're wrong they're right!

"Sad" thing here is, ... if she's wrong, she won't admit it, but never-the-less, she's just gone and potentially infected the PM of Japan - so he has to suffer both the Domestic abuse from his Wife and now the Virus she's passed onto him.... poor chap.

The Next Japanese PM should be a Young, Single, and a Socially Academic recluse, with adherence to traditional Social distancing (in order to be unoffensive), yet maintain a high Social media engagement on various platforms....

So who fits such a profile ?

Some Japanese are tone deaf,to dangers of the Coronavirus

Some Japanese are tone deaf,to dangers of the Coronavirus

You can't really blame them.

They show them scary images of the virus abroad while the infection and death

rate they see and hear of here is extremely low. The average person cannot correlate the low rate of infection with the testing rate if the media itself isn't mentioning it.