On Monday, Kishida effectively dismissed his eldest son as secretary of the prime minister. The move is likely to fend off public criticism of him being easy on his own people and minimize damage to his administration.
The outcry was raised when it emerged that 32-year-old Shotaro Kishida, who served as executive secretary to the prime minister in charge of political affairs, had held a year-end party at the Prime Minister's Office.
I will fulfill my responsibilities by listening carefully to the voices of the people and striving to provide answers to each and every pressing issue, Kishida said Monday.
In a phone interview with government officials, Kishida announced his plan to remove his son on Monday.
The Cabinet's approval rating had been up in the wake of the May 19 - 21 Group of Seven summit held in Hiroshima, among other events. When reports of the Year-end party came light in a weekly magazine, public opinion polls were a halted in momentum, with The Nikkei Shimbun a drop of 5 percent from late April to 47%, while The Sankei Shimbun and FNN logged a 0.3 percent drop to 50.4%.
The government and the Liberal Democratic Party were reportedly worried that the scandal could jeopardize the uplifting effect of the summit.
Kishida has a mountain of problems to tackle - such as dealing with key bills - before the end of the current Diet session on June 21. This appeared to lead to his conclusions that replacing his son was unavoidable. The prime minister made a cool-headed decision based on his belief that trust in the administration is the most important thing, a source close to Kishida said. However, there was some optimism within the Prime Minister's Office that the year-end party issue was not serious enough to force Shotaro's removal. Some suggested that Shotaro should be replaced as part of a cabinet reshuffle scheduled to occur at the end of the current Diet session.
Last Thursday, the prime minister appeared to let Shotaro off the hook with just a severe reprimand, telling reporters, It s deeply regrettable if there was a lack of expertise that caused public distrust and exhorted his son to act with a sense of urgency. However, it became hard to shake off perceptions of impropriety after photos were released showing Shotaro posing with guests on a red carpet - believed to be at the West Staircase, where cabinet members line up beside the prime minister for a commemorative photo following a Cabinet inauguration - and one guest lying on the staircase. The final blow was that the prime minister, himself, had greeted the guests at the party.
The prime minister s secretary was chosen as the prime minister s chief and there were strong criticisms of his selection. In January, Shotaro was reported to have used official vehicles for private tourism while accompanying the prime minister on an official overseas trip. There was a burgeoning sense of crisis within the government that Kishida would be unable to escape criticism if he was seen as favoring his own people. Shotaro's chief Cabinet Secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, told reporters Tuesday that he doesn't plan to receive a retirement fee or bonus when he leaves his post Thursday.
He contacted us to say he would return all benefits if a retirement fee, term-end allowance or other bonus were to be paid, Matsuno said.