TOKYO, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese government on Wednesday appointed a female diplomat from the Foreign Ministry to succeed the cabinet public relations secretary who resigned amid a scandal involving Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's eldest son.
Deputy Press Secretary Hikariko Ono, 55, was named Cabinet Public Relations Secretary taking over from Makiko Yamada who resigned Monday after she was found to have been treated to dinner worth 74,000 yen (700 U.S. dollars) by Suga's eldest son who works for Tohokushinsha Film Corp.
The dinner took place when she was a senior bureaucrat at the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry.
The ministry is responsible for issuing licenses to a satellite broadcasting business run by Tohokushinsha Film Corp.
Central government officials under Japan's National Public Service Ethics Law are prohibited from receiving personal favors from official associates or stakeholders.
Ono joined the Foreign Ministry in 1988 having previously served as official in charge of international public relations at the Prime Minister's Office and a spokesperson for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
She was dispatched to Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2017 as the Deputy Chief of Mission of Japan to ASEAN.
Suga's government selecting a female to replace Yamada who herself was the first woman in Japan to become a Cabinet press secretary, credibility aside, is believed to be in step with the government's push to further female empowerment.
The swift replacement is also believed to be a move to help mitigate falling public support over the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ethics scandal so far has implicated eleven officials from the communications ministry who were found to have been wined and dined by Tohokushinsha Film officials, with some of them treated by Suga's son in particular. Enditem
