Scandal hits new Japan industry minister after staff visit sadomasochism bar
Shinzo Abe's government suffered a further blow on Thursday as new industry minister Yoichi Miyazawa faces calls to resign after press sources reveal his staff visited a sex bar
Japan was hit on Thursday by a third political scandal in a week after its new industry minister – whose predecessor resigned in disgrace over misspending – admitted that his underlings had spent office cash at a sex bar specialising in sadomasochism.
Harvard graduate Yoichi Miyazawa, a former top bureaucrat in the finance ministry, immediately distanced himself from the brewing scandal, saying he wasn’t present at the club in the city of Hiroshima.
“It is also true that I myself was not there.”
But he acknowledged that some staff at his political office had billed 18,230 yen (HK$1,320) as entertainment expenses during a visit to the club in September 2010, Jiji Press news agency said.
The venue’s shows depict women being tied up with ropes and whipped.
“I came to know of that through a media report, and it was true,” Miyazawa told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday.
“It is also true that I myself was not there,” he added.