MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd June, 2023) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday rejected accusations of violating the rules for using the prime ministerial residence for a meeting with relatives following the scandal over his son's inappropriate behavior.
Earlier in the day, Japanese Friday magazine published a photo of Kishida dining with his relatives at the residence.
"I attended the party with relatives in a private area of my official residence. I believe I did not do anything inappropriate," Fumio Kishida was quoted as saying by the Japan news outlet.
He also noted that the photos published by the magazine were taken in the private premises of the residence, so no rules were violated by him and his guests.
Earlier in May, a Japanese weekly magazine reported that during a party at the prime minister's residence last year, the prime minister's son, Shotaro Kishida, posed for photographs with his relatives on a red carpet staircase and in other symbolic locations traditionally used for photoshoots of the Japanese Cabinet upon authorization by the Emperor, which was seen as disrespectful. On Monday, he resigned from the post of executive secretary. In January, while accompanying the prime minister in his visits to the G7 member states in the run-up to the Summit in Hiroshima, Shotaro was criticized for using a government car for going sightseeing and shopping in London, Paris and Ottawa.
