TOKYO (TR) – Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara has revealed that his secretary sneaked a female acquaintance who is not his wife into his hotel room during taxpayer-funded business trips, reports the Sankei Shimbun (June 13).
The scandalous admission was made during the House of Representatives Cabinet Committee meeting on Friday, where Kihara indicated he is considering disciplinary “personnel action” against the aide.
The scandal emerged via a report in Bunshun Online on June 5. According to the report, the secretary invited the woman to his hotel room on five separate occasions between May and September of 2022, while the secretary was working for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). On two of those occasions, she stayed until morning.
The taxpayer-funded trips to Osaka were for official duties related to the upcoming Osaka-Kansai Expo.
Under questioning from opposition lawmaker Akira Nagatsuma, it was revealed that the aide dodged extra accommodation fees by booking the room for a single occupant.
Kihara explained that for one of the overnight stays, no extra fee was required. However, for the second overnight stay, the aide realized an additional charge was necessary but only paid the hotel out of pocket after a magazine caught wind of the affair and approached him for an interview. Kihara insisted that all hotel accounts have since been “properly settled.”
Nagatsuma also raised concerns over national security, questioning whether classified government information could have been leaked to the woman during the overnight stays. Kihara declined to give a definitive answer, stating only that the government is “comprehensively checking” the matter in cooperation with METI.
When pressed on when the investigation would conclude and if Kihara himself should bear supervisory responsibility, the Chief Cabinet Secretary pleaded for discretion.
“The facts are extremely delicate, and the individual has a family,” Kihara said. “We must properly confirm the information before deciding on personnel action. Because it involves his privacy, we want to make a judgment as swiftly as possible and handle it appropriately.”
