Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui, who heads the Japan Innovation Party (JIP), explains about a roughly three-hour dinner meeting he had with around 30 people including JIP legislators, at Osaka City Hall on Dec. 9, 2021. (Mainichi/Mirai Nagira)

       OSAKA -- Osaka Mayor Ichiro Matsui has revealed that he dined with some 30 people for about three hours, in excess of Osaka Prefecture's request for citizens to limit such functions to roughly two hours to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

       At a press conference on Dec. 9, Matsui, head of the conservative opposition Japan Innovation Party (Nippon Ishin, or JIP), disclosed that he had a dinner meeting in early December with some 30 figures involved in the Oct. 31 House of Representatives election, including Diet lawmakers and local assembly members belonging to the party.

       The Osaka Prefectural Government has requested prefectural residents to limit dining with others to no more than two hours or so as part of its coronavirus prevention measures. "We must reflect on the fact that our dining lasted for more than two hours," Matsui told the news conference.

       According to Matsui and JIP legislators who attended the meeting, they dined at an izakaya pub in the Shinsaibashi district of the city of Osaka on Dec. 2 as a "review meeting" for the general election. The participants included a lower house member elected from the Osaka No. 14 constituency, members of the Osaka prefectural and the Osaka municipal assemblies, as well as mayors and others.

       The attendants had a large room all to themselves, and four people were seated at each table. Some participants, however, left their seats to greet Matsui during the session. A weekly magazine reportedly reached out to concerned parties regarding the function.

       "We were wearing masks, and maintained a distance from one another. We didn't break any rules," Matsui insisted. Yet he continued, "Amid the requests to limit parties to around two hours, citizens may rap us for not abiding by it."

       While the prefectural government currently places no limit on the number of people in a group when they dine at establishments certified by third parties over coronavirus measures, it has requested that no more than four people be seated at each table and that a dining session last no longer than about two hours.

       (Japanese original by Mirai Nagira, Osaka City News Department)

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