Japan¡¯s fascination with cherry blossoms extended well beyond the two-week viewing season this year, after Toru Miyamoto, a Lower House member of the opposition Japanese Communist Party, released a picture of the Cabinet Office¡¯s massive paper shredder. The machine, capable of shredding a 1,000-page document in 40 seconds, curiously destroyed the 800-page guest list for the cherry blossom viewing party hosted in April by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ¡ª on the same day Miyamoto had asked for the document¡¯s release.
Abe¡¯s political opponents cried foul, claiming the guest list unfairly rewarded ruling party supporters at taxpayers¡¯ expense. They believed the list had grown too large, leading to budget-busting cost overruns. Similar accusations of favoritism involving the sale of state-owned land to Osaka-based school operator Moritomo Gakuen previously engulfed Abe¡¯s administration.
Mieko Nakabayashi, a Waseda University political science professor and a former Lower House member, wonders why the government learned nothing from past experience. She believes lax record keeping undermines democracy.
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