Tokyo governor again made luxurious overseas trips

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Tokyo governor again made luxurious overseas trips

Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro used a total of 130 million yen for his four trips abroad this year to promote Tokyo’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. This fact was uncovered by Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly members.

Releasing the finding on December 21, JCP Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member Yoshida Nobuo pointed out that the governor’s use of tax money for luxurious overseas trips is inappropriate. He said that the JCP will question the metropolitan government and the Olympic Games Bid Committee led by Ishihara about this wasteful spending of taxpayers’ money.

According to the JCP’s research, the governor traveled with his secretaries to Lausanne (Switzerland), Singapore, Berlin (Germany), and Copenhagen (Denmark) between June and October this year.

Ishihara spent 2.4 million yen to purchase first-class seats for his round trip to Berlin. In their trip to Lausanne in June, Ishihara and his secretaries originally bought airline tickets from Geneva to Narita via Paris. But they changed their plan and used TGV to travel from Geneva and Paris in order to make a brief stop at Lyon to eat lunch. The tickets they originally purchased were wasted.

They paid a total of 42.7 million yen to rent luxury cars on the four trips. Even for 30-minute transportation from an airport to a hotel, they rented such luxury cars for a half day.

The governor’s total hotel cost for the four trips was 1.76 million yen, 1.01 million yen higher than the ceiling set by the metropolitan ordinance for hotel accommodations. In Lausanne, he stayed in a suite at a five-star hotel, spending 122,850 yen for one night, which is 3.7 times higher than the ceiling.

In Singapore, the Ishihara-led delegation paid a Japanese interpreter 224,000 yen to guide them for 14 hours. They rented a fax machine for 290,000 yen in Berlin and a black-and-white printer for 440,000 yen in Copenhagen.

- Akahata, December 22, 2009