Latest news with #Abenomask
Asahi Shimbun
3 days ago
- Business
- Asahi Shimbun
VOX POPULI: Government never faced up to lack of records on ‘Abenomasks'
Plaintiff Hiroshi Kamiwaki, middle, holds a sign proclaiming victory in a lawsuit against the government at the Osaka District Court on June 5. (Minami Endo) There's a Japanese expression, 'shokushogimi'—the sense of being fed up after overindulgence. By now, many in Japan are surely fed up with hearing about the 'Abenomask,' the government's much-maligned initiative under then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to distribute reusable cloth face masks to every household during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the enormous outlay of taxpayer funds, the masks failed to reach people when they were most needed, and vast quantities ended up in storage. Rarely has a government policy drawn such widespread ridicule and criticism. So how were these masks procured in the first place? On June 5, the Osaka District Court overturned the government's decision to withhold documents related to the contracting process. The court dismissed the government's assertion that 'no documents exist' as implausible. The government claimed that most interactions had been conducted 'orally,' without written records. That means contracts totaling 40 billion yen ($278 million) for 300 million masks—each differing by vendor—were arranged through verbal agreements alone. The notion strains credulity. Even if true, such an approach reveals a staggering level of administrative negligence. We saw a similar attitude among senior bureaucrats during the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, which involved the questionable sale of state-owned land to a private school operator with ties to Abe. Officials brazenly claimed that documents related to the land deal had been discarded and that virtually nothing was known. Such an outrageous excuse is so appalling that it leaves one speechless. It inevitably casts serious doubt on the credibility of those involved. In the case of the mask contracts, even emails that had supposedly been discarded were later unearthed during reinvestigation. As Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892–1927), one of Japan's most influential writers, once observed with remarkable insight and precision, 'There are truths that can only be expressed through lies.' 'There was absolutely nothing wrong with it,' Abe maintained, defending the controversial policy and continuing to don the cloth masks. But the success or failure of a public policy is not determined by the policymaker—it is judged by the people. What, then, are the lessons to be drawn from the pandemic? If access to legitimate information is obstructed, it becomes impossible to scrutinize the historical responsibility of those who shaped critical decisions. Not long ago, I learned that a friend still had an Abenomask at home. Feeling a twinge of nostalgia, I asked to see it. The small mask, made of thick, coarse gauze, felt oddly familiar. When I held it to my face, it gave off a faint scent—reminiscent of 'warabanshi,' the rough, low-grade paper once commonly used in Japanese schools for handouts and practice sheets. —The Asahi Shimbun, June 6 * * * Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
Asahi Shimbun
3 days ago
- Politics
- Asahi Shimbun
Court orders pay in info-disclosure lawsuit over Abenomasks
Plaintiff Hiroshi Kamiwaki, middle, holds a sign claiming victory in a lawsuit against the government at the Osaka District Court on June 5. (Minami Endo) OSAKA—The Osaka District Court on June 5 overturned the majority of the government's decisions on refusing to disclose information concerning its 40-billion-yen ($280 million) 'Abenomask' project. The ruling ordered the government to pay 110,000 yen ($767) in compensation to a constitutional scholar who has been denied information on how the millions of anti-COVID-19 masks were obtained. The government had argued that it discarded procurement information about the mask-distribution project, which was initiated in April 2020 when Shinzo Abe was prime minister. However, the court ruled, 'It is hard to believe that there were no documents even taking into account the busy schedule at the time.' The Abe government delivered cloth masks to every household to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The masks, which became known as Abenomasks, were criticized as too small, defective or dirty, and the project was ridiculed. But then the cost of the project emerged, as well as the waste. The government procured about 300 million cloth masks. However, about 83 million of them ended up stored as inventory. Hiroshi Kamiwaki, a constitutional law professor at Kobe Gakuin University, had demanded information disclosure about the project several times since April 2020. He argued the government 'has an obligation to explain the process to the public because of the huge amount of taxpayer money spent on the contract.' Specifically, he sought details on how the masks were procured as well as the contracting process with the vendors. Although the government provided documents on contract figures and quotations, it said that emails and interview records showing negotiations with the contractors were 'nonexistent.' Kamiwaki filed the lawsuit in February 2021, but the government continued to insist that the emails 'were destroyed each time.' The plaintiff's side then obtained emails from the contractors that indicated they had meetings with government employees about the masks. When the government re-examined the case, it 'found' more than 100 e-mails on the computers of two employees. However, the government refused to disclose these emails, and the two employees testified in court that their communication with the contractors was mostly 'verbal.' Therefore, the issue in the lawsuit became whether the employees' emails were subject to information disclosure laws and whether the government's claims that there were no records of such meetings were credible. The plaintiff argued the emails were related to the government's decision-making process, and that the administrative document management rules do not allow for 'destruction each time.' The plaintiff's side also argued it would be impossible for the government not to keep written records of the contracting process with the vendors. The government countered that the emails were documents with a 'retention period of less than one year' that could be disposed of without any problem. Thus, the government said, the emails were not subject to information disclosure laws. The government also argued it is obligated to produce documents only 'when it affects policymaking or project implementation policies.' The absence of meetings' records is not unnatural, it said, and requested that the compensation request be dismissed. After the ruling, the health ministry said, 'We would like to take appropriate action after fully examining the content of the court decision and consulting with the relevant ministries and agencies.'
