<figure id="attachment_324871" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-324871" style="width: 5268px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8c786311"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/08/daf3ad4bd6c202e61f1ce31be06353a7.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-324871" class="wp-caption-text">Eriko Imai smiles for her supporters, and Ken Hashimoto supports her.</figcaption></figure>
 LDP Upper House Representative Imai Eriko is under fire for her &#8220;training in France.
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 The LDP Women&#8217;s Bureau left for France at the end of July for an overseas training program. Ms. Imai is a member of the LDP&#8217;s House of Councilors.
 &#8220;I will inspect and exchange opinions on France&#8217;s measures to cope with the declining birthrate and support for child rearing,&#8221; Imai said.
 Imai explained the purpose of the trip. A photo of her exchanging opinions with local Diet members was shown.
 Meanwhile, Rui Matsukawa, a member of the House of Councillors and the director of the bureau, posed in front of the Eiffel Tower and took a group photo, making a big splash. On the Internet, people commented
 &#8220;That&#8217;s tourism!
 &#8220;This is what a member of the Diet does while forcing the public to pay higher taxes!
 This is what the Diet members should be doing!
 The criticisms were such as, &#8220;This is tourism!
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 On July 31, Matsukawa hurriedly explained on his social networking service. She explained the breakdown of the 38 participants.
 The 38 participants consisted of local Diet members who belong to the Women&#8217;s Bureau nationwide and private citizens who are executives of the Women&#8217;s Bureau, and four Diet members including myself.
 He then added that the cost was covered by the Party&#8217;s budget and each participant&#8217;s own money.
 &#8220;The cost of the trip was covered by the party and each participant&#8217;s own expenses.
 He emphasized that the trip was not publicly funded. As for the &#8220;sightseeing photos&#8221; that drew criticism
 &#8220;The Luxembourg Palace is the seat of the French Senate.
 He also deleted the photo in front of the Eiffel Tower.
 On the same day, Senator Imai also referred to the uproar on social networking sites.
 He said, &#8220;Failure in domestic politics destroys a cabinet, but failure in diplomacy destroys a country.
 He added, &#8220;Diplomacy also starts with building relationships,
 Diplomacy also starts with building relationships. That is why I often visit other countries to interact with their people.
 He also emphasized the significance of his visit, saying, &#8220;I am a diplomat. He revealed that he has received slanderous DMs on his account.
 I must be careful about what I send out on social networking sites. Furthermore, I am worried about those who say such words.
 I am also worried about the people who use such words,&#8221; he wrote.
 Imai&#8217;s partner, Ken Hashimoto, a former city council member of Kobe, who is said to be in a &#8220;de facto marriage&#8221; with Imai, could not remain silent about the situation. He posted a series of &#8220;X&#8221; tweets, including the following
 Pictures of the Eiffel Tower. Pictures of food. Take as many pictures as you want. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with that. It&#8217;s impossible not to mislead everyone. Some people complain, others say so. You can&#8217;t reason with them. If you have to pay your own expenses, it&#8217;s even better if you have a proportionate amount of free time. Private companies don&#8217;t have co-payments for business trips.
 He went on to defend all sides of the issue, including the following A follower commented
 I&#8217;m jealous of you because you&#8217;ve been on an enviable sightseeing trip that would make many Japanese people jealous. That&#8217;s what pisses me off.
 In response to this point of view, he responded
 Well, I think this is the essence of it. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether they are publicly funded or not. Even if you go at your own expense, there will be a certain number of people who complain about it.
 Japanese people are especially offended when they see other people enjoying themselves. But that&#8217;s just a distortion on their part, so don&#8217;t worry about it.
 Imai said in a speech in July last year at the House of Councillors.
 Imai ran for the LDP&#8217;s proportional representation in last July&#8217;s Upper House election. Although he was declared the winner within nine minutes of the opening of the polls when he first ran in 2004, this time the news of his election finally arrived in the morning after the date had changed. At the time, Mr. Imai said
 I didn&#8217;t feel like SPEED,&#8221; he said with a wry smile.
 He smiled bitterly at the time.
 For Imai and others, it was lucky that the election came after the Upper House election. If the election had been held this year, they would have been in trouble. The LDP is facing such a headwind with the problems of the Mynacard and high prices.
 This time, the problem is more with Councilor Matsukawa who uploaded the photo of the Eiffel Tower than with Councilor Imai. I wonder how he could release something like that at this timing. He will have to be accountable after he returns to Japan.
 On July 31, businessman Hiroyuki wrote on his SNS
 &#8220;It would be wrong to blame the 38 LDP women&#8217;s bureau members at this stage for the significance of their training in France.
 On July 31, Hiroyuki, a member of the LDP&#8217;s Women&#8217;s Bureau, stated on his SNS
 &#8220;Will we be able to submit a &#8216;legislative bill for women to play an active role in the Diet&#8217; in the next Diet session? I think it will be decided by the next session of the Diet. If a bill is not passed, the 38 members will be placed on the list of incompetent legislators who are wasting taxpayers&#8217; money,&#8221; he warned.
 He warned.
 I&#8217;m looking forward to your legislation,&#8221; he said. and 》
 he posted.
 After returning to Japan, it is expected that the scrutiny on Imai and the others will intensify. We would like to see results so that we will not be called &#8220;incompetent legislators. &#8230;&#8230;

 Takeshi Kinugawa

 The Kishida administration, which is in "tax hike mode," including tax hikes on salarymen, is once again facing headwinds from the public. The LDP's Women's Bureau left for France at the end of July for an overseas training program, but a photo of Imai Eriko and other members of the LDP has caused controversy. ......

Eriko Imai, whose &#8220;flirtatious photo&#8221; in France caused a big firestorm, was fully defended by her partner Ken Hashimoto, who said, &#8220;Don&#8217;t worry about it.

Eriko Imai, whose “flirtatious photo” in France caused a big firestorm, was fully defended by her partner Ken Hashimoto, who said, “Don’t worry about it.

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