PM Suga's Apology For Many Japanese Parliament Members Playing At Nightclub

Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga apologized after a number of parliamentary officials from his coalition were caught visiting night clubs. The problem is, the Suga government itself has called on everyone not to travel to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

Apologies were made on Wednesday, January 27. The visit of these officials became a nuisance for Suga. The level of support for Suga has continued to decline since he took office several months ago. Many are dissatisfied with Suga's slow and inconsistent way of handling the pandemic.

"I sincerely apologize for this happening when we ask people not to eat out after 8 p.m. and to avoid unnecessary and non-urgent travel," Suga told parliament.

"Every member of parliament should take a stand to gain public understanding."

This month Japan issued a state of emergency in Tokyo and a number of other areas to curb the drastic spike in COVID-19 cases. The measure includes a policy requiring restaurants and bars to close at 8 p.m.

However, currently there are no penalties applied for those who do not comply with the rules. "My attitude was reckless. At a time when we asked people to be patient," said a senior lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Jun Matsumoto.

Matsumoto made the statement, following a report by the Daily Shincho magazine. In his report, Matsumoto is said to have visited two nightclubs in Ginza, which is an elite area of Tokyo, after eating at an Italian restaurant on Monday, January 25.

Kiyohiko Toyama, a member of parliament from the junior coalition partner Komeito also apologized after the Shukan Bunshun tabloid reported he had been visiting a luxury nightclub in Ginza late into the night on Friday, January 22.

"It's only a matter of time before the public outrage runs high. I don't want a cash payment of 100 thousand yen -about Rp. 13.5 million. I want them to stop!" said one Twitter user.

"They are really stupid. Don't they think about what they are doing and how the public sees them? Otherwise, they do not qualify the term to become representatives," another user exclaimed.