Japan’s Abe Axes Cherry Blossom Bash in Bid for U.S. Trade Pact
Japan’s Abe Axes Cherry Blossom Bash in Bid for U.S. Trade Pact
(Bloomberg) --
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has canceled an annual cherry blossom viewing party after facing opposition criticism that invitations were given as political favors, seeking to sweep away obstacles ahead of a looming vote in parliament on a U.S. trade deal.
The publicly funded event with a nearly 70-year history won’t be held next spring, Abe’s government said Wednesday. Opposition lawmakers over the past few days have slammed Abe for increasing the budget and the number of guests, and for inviting large numbers of his political supporters.
“We need to step back and deal with the various criticisms that have been made,” top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters. The party may be reinstated in subsequent years, once changes have been made, he said.
Abe’s top priority for the current session of parliament is the passage of the Japan-U.S. trade pact, which President Donald Trump’s administration wants to put into force Jan. 1. Local media reports said a vote in the powerful lower house could come as early as next week.
The event attracted about 18,000 people this year and pictures on the website of the prime minister’s office show a smiling Abe under the flowers emblematic of the country posing with celebrities, some of them dressed in colorful kimono. The decision to cancel the viewing party was flashed as major breaking news on Japanese television networks.
The abrupt decision came after a string of scandals in Abe’s cabinet, which resulted in the resignation of two ministers in quick succession.
Opposition parties use such problems to delay the government’s legislative agenda, and had already begun holding meetings on the cherry blossom viewing party.
To contact the reporter on this story: Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo at ireynolds1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Jon Herskovitz, Colin Keatinge
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