Photo/Illutration Makiko Yamada, left, the Cabinet public relations secretary, serves as the moderator at a news conference of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo on Jan. 13. (Kotaro Ebara)

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga abruptly canceled a news conference on Feb. 26, raising suspicions that he is keeping the media from his top public relations aide, embroiled in a scandal.

Suga was scheduled to explain the government's decision expected that day to lift the state of emergency for the six prefectures of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Aichi, Gifu and Fukuoka at the end of February, ahead of the March 7 deadline.

Senior staffers at the prime minister's office downplayed the last-minute cancellation, saying Suga is expected to hold a news conference in early March when the government asks for expert opinions on lifting the state of emergency for Tokyo and neighboring prefectures as scheduled.

Ending the state of emergency for the six prefectures, after all, isn't really a big deal, one official insisted on Feb. 25.

“It’s just that we are going to lift the state of emergency early in several places. It’s not really worth holding a news conference for,” the official said.

Instead, the officials are considering making Suga available to take questions from reporters at the entrance hall of the prime minister’s office on the evening of Feb. 26.

But many in political circles aren't buying the explanations offered for canceling the news conference.

“It’s because of the public relations secretary,” said a central government official who deals with the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The official was referring to Makiko Yamada, tied to a wining and dining scandal involving satellite broadcaster Tohokushinsha Film Corp.

The company treated the Cabinet public relations secretary to an expensive dinner attended by Suga’s eldest son, a Tohokushinsha employee.

Yamada usually leads Suga’s news conferences as the moderator.

“Apparently, staffers at the prime minister’s office had divided opinions about Yamada and decided to cancel the news conference,” a government official said.

At each milestone of the pandemic, Suga has held a news conference. In January, he did so to declare a state of emergency for Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures, and later to announce the addition of seven prefectures, including Osaka.

On Feb. 2, Suga issued the extension of the state of emergency in Tokyo and nine prefectures at a news conference.

“I want to send out information thoroughly to people and perform my duty with clear explanation,” he said at the time.

The latest decision to cancel the news conference contradicts what Suga promised, critics said.

The abrupt decision "smells fishy," said Kiyomi Tsujimoto of the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan on Feb. 26.

If Suga decided to cancel the news conference "in order to hide Yamada from the (media), that means she has become a stumbling block for people to get information" about ending the state of emergency, Tsujimoto said. "Then Yamada is not fit for the task of being the Cabinet public relations secretary."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato at a news conference on Feb. 26 denied that Yamada's scandal influenced the decision.

"We will tell people necessary things at the necessary time," Kato said.

Kato also defended Suga's decision, citing that his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, did not hold a formal news conference either when he lifted the state of emergency in some prefectures in May 2020, instead taking questions from those who stood around him.

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