Photo/Illutration Young people hoping to receive COVID-19 vaccine jab form a long line in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on Aug. 28. (The Asahi Shimbun)

A Tokyo metropolitan assemblyman curious about the cost of plans to develop an online lottery system for young people to secure an appointment for a novel coronavirus vaccine jab decided not to press the matter during a special committee session this month after being asked to drop it.

The high-ranking official in charge of developing the system admitted in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun that she asked him to do so and offered an explanation.

“I asked the assembly member not to inquire about the cost because the figure for it was provisional and he accepted my request,” she said. “I did not make the request using harsh language and I believe that what I did was within a permissible range.”

The assemblyman belongs to Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First), a regional party founded by Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

“I skipped the question because I did not think it was the most important one I was going to ask,” the man said of the Sept. 7 session when contacted by The Asahi Shimbun for comment. “But in hindsight, I should have asked it.”

The matter concerned the opening of a vaccination center for people aged between 16 and 39 without a prior appointment that the metropolitan government opened in the capital's Shibuya Ward on Aug. 27.

The program was set up in response to mounting calls from people in that age group for COVID-19 jabs as they were not high on a priority list that put health care workers and those aged 65 or older first.

Slots for 300 doses for the first day of the program were quickly filled despite a long line of people waiting to get their jab.

The metropolitan government moved the following day to hand out tickets to vaccine applicants that allowed them to take part in a lottery for a shot at getting a slot.

But this backfired because applicants still had to show up to get a lottery ticket when residents of Tokyo were being asked to restrict their outdoor activities as much as possible due to the state of emergency.

The line for lottery tickets stretched for about 1 kilometer.

This prompted metropolitan government authorities to switch to an online lottery for doses to be administered from Sept. 4.

The assembly member notified the metropolitan government’s Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health of his intention to ask about the cost for developing the online system during a special committee meeting on the Tokyo government's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The official in charge of the program met with the assemblyman on Sept. 3 and asked him to drop the matter.

“Please do not ask about the cost as the vaccine rollout is proceeding smoothly now,” the official was quoted as saying.

She also said the metropolitan government had set aside a sum of about 10 million yen ($90,910) for the program.

Instead of inquiring about the cost, the assemblyman asked how the lottery system was working.

It is customary for assembly members to notify metropolitan officials in advance what they plan to ask during assembly sessions so both sides can coordinate their questions and answers.

More than one assembly member said there had been cases in the past where Tokyo officials had urged them to refrain from asking specific questions during a session.

Toshiaki Eto, a professor of local politics at Taisho University in Tokyo, expressed surprise at the exchange between the assemblyman and the senior metropolitan official.

“If the figure is provisional, the official can answer the assemblyman’s question, making clear that it is provisional,” he said. “Verifying the metropolitan government’s policy measures, including their cost and effectiveness, is an important role of the assembly.”

“If the metropolitan government did not want the question to be asked because it was inconvenient and the assemblyman concurred, it shows that both sides are not truly looking out at the welfare of the public,” Eto added.

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