Former Abe Cabinet members had an overnight affair on the “Good Marriage Day”.

On November 22, known as “Good Marriage Day,” Chichibu-gahama beach overlooking the Seto Inland Sea in western Kagawa Prefecture was bustling with couples despite the fact that it was a weekday. There were nearly 15 couples, including a couple letting their child play and a couple of student-like friends. Then a man and a woman, who looked like a mature couple, appeared on the beach.

The woman caught up with the man, who was wearing a coat, a little later, carrying a bag. They seemed to be enjoying themselves as they walked to the edge of the surf, holding hands in the form of alternating fingers and toes. On the way there, the man took a picture of her with his smartphone, sitting back as if looking for a good angle. He and the woman took turns taking pictures of each other and were delighted when they saw the screen. After a 40-minute stroll, they entered an inn overlooking the beach, had dinner, and spent the night together.

Incidentally, a full-course dinner for the two would cost about 150,000 yen per night, depending on the day. It is very unaffordable for the average person. A tourist who was on the beach revealed, “The way they were walking on the beach was just like that.

They looked like a couple of lovers walking on the beach, a young couple rather than a mature couple. Other mature couples were not so close to each other.

Chabokukehama Beach is said to be the “mirror in the sky of the Seto Inland Sea,” and it has become a hot topic on social networking sites, especially at dusk, as a spectacular, photo-worthy view. If the man knew this as well and invited the woman to join him, it would be heartbreaking.

The man’s name is Teru Fukui. After graduating from Nada High School and the University of Tokyo’s Faculty of Engineering, he joined the Ministry of Construction, where he was first elected in 2000 to the Liberal Democratic Party in Kochi’s 1st Constituency, and since then has been elected seven times, including in 2018 as Minister of Cabinet Office Special Missions (Okinawa and Northern Affairs, Consumer and Food Safety, and Ocean Policy) in the fourth Shinzo Abe Cabinet. He was unsuccessfully elected to the House of Representatives in October 2021. He is currently an advisor to several companies. In his private life, he is married with two children.

If the woman he was leaning on had been his wife, it would have been a fitting tribute to her on “Good Marriage Day,” but she was not his wife. It was Masako Matsubara, married and president of Kankyo Kagaku Sekkei, a construction consulting firm in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture that specializes in water supply and sewage systems. Mr. Fukui also serves as an advisor to the company, and it appears that they became acquainted over the past year. A source in Nagata-cho who knows Fukui’s work revealed, “Fukui has a warm and gentle personality.

When I call him on his day off, he texts me, ‘Can I call you now? He is the kind of person who, when calling someone on his day off, would text them and ask, ‘Can I call you now? Before he became a minister, he would come to Nagatacho by train, not by car. He was an excellent worker, but perhaps he was a bit naive.