Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, Akie Abe, came under fire on social media yesterday over a report that she visited a shrine last month with about 50 people, adding to public disapproval of how her husband has handled the coronavirus crisis.
Shinzo Abe’s support has been hurt by what critics say is a timid and sluggish response to the outbreak, and by widespread criticism that he has appeared tone deaf to the severity of the crisis in his own social media posts.
Akie Abe became a trending topic on Japanese Twitter, with her name gaining more than 17,000 retweets by mid-morning, after a magazine said that she had visited a shrine in southwest Japan on March 15.
Photo: Reuters
That was about two weeks after her husband asked schools to close and organizers to scrap or curtail events, but before he declared a state of emergency.
“Schools were closed at that time, but the prime minister’s wife seemed to have too much time on her hands. Kids were stuck at home. This is Japan’s shame,” one Twitter user said.
“If she got infected this way, would she get special treatment with high-class medical care?” said another user, although some people also defended her as a private citizen.
Support for Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet fell to 39 percent in an NHK survey published on Monday, down four points. Seventy-five percent of respondents said his declaration on Tuesday last week of a state of emergency came too late.
Last weekend he drew an angry response from some Twitter users after sharing a video of himself lounging on a sofa with his dog, drinking tea and reading, with a message telling people to stay at home.
“Who do you think you are?” became a top trend on Twitter.
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