Prime Minister Shinzo Abe probably regrets attending a drinking party thrown by some Liberal Democratic Party colleagues on July 5. Even if he didn’t suffer a hangover, as some reports implied, he was forced to dodge media brickbats over his colleagues’ seeming inability to “read the air,” as the Japanese say.
Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa, the designated “hostess” of the party, had two days earlier signed off on the execution of seven members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo, including leader Shoko Asahara, which took place the next morning. It looked to members of the press as if the politicians were celebrating the hangings, even if the public seemed relieved that the two-decade-long Aum ordeal was over.
More significantly, the Meteorological Agency held an extraordinary news conference on the afternoon of July 5, announcing that western Japan would be hit by “unprecedented” rain for several days. Even before the partygoers hoisted their glasses, around 200,000 people in Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were “warned” to evacuate.
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