Photo/Illutration Naokazu Takemoto, center, minister for information technology, during a Lower House Budget Committee session on Feb. 19 (Takeshi Iwashita)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cautioned a close aide to be more circumspect following revelations the man booked connecting hotel rooms with a senior female bureaucrat during overseas business trips.

Abe told Hiroto Izumi, who serves him as a special adviser, to exercise self-restraint in his relationship with Hiroko Otsubo, a deputy director-general at the health ministry.

Aside from advising the prime minister, Izumi serves as chief of the healthcare policy office under the Cabinet Secretariat, where Otsubo is a vice chief.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga revealed details of Abe's admonishment to Izumi in response to a question Feb. 19 by Hiranao Honda, a lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, during a Lower House Budget Committee session.

The session was marked by a bizarre episode that involved a Cabinet minister retracting his remarks on the overseas business trips within 30 seconds of making them.

Naokazu Takemoto, the minister for information technology who oversees healthcare policy strategy, asserted that there was nothing untoward about Otsubo accompanying Izumi.

“They were to discuss matters related to bilateral economic cooperation, including health issues such as healthcare,” Takemoto said.

He said written records were kept of the the conferences they attended.

Honda immediately requested that Takemoto submit the records for scrutiny.

At that point, he said: “I want to correct my words. We have no records.” Only 30 seconds had elapsed during the exchange, which drew gasps from committee members.   

Izumi booked connecting hotel rooms on all four overseas business trips he made in 2018. Otsubo was booked into a connecting room each time. The pair visited India, Myanmar, China and the Philippines. 

When asked about the propriety of Otsubo accompanying Izumi, Suga emphasized they drew a line between their private and public lives.

“I understand that the prime minister warned Izumi to avoid behavior that could raise public doubts.”