菅首相、長男に調査協力指示　総務省幹部、会費を事後返金―接待問題

　菅義偉首相は４日の衆院予算委員会で、自身の長男（３９）が総務省幹部に国家公務員倫理法への抵触が疑われる接待をしたと報じられたことに関し、長男に電話で調査への協力を指示したことを明らかにした。同省幹部は会食の事実を認め、会費を事後に返金したと説明。野党は追及を強める構えで、与党議員の「深夜の銀座」訪問問題に続き、政権の新たな火種となりそうだ。
　この問題は週刊文春が報じた。総務省の谷脇康彦総務審議官ら幹部４人は昨年１０～１２月、衛星放送事業などを手掛ける「東北新社」に勤務する長男とそれぞれ日本料理店やすし店で会食し、タクシーチケットも受け取ったという。（2021/02/04-19:05）

Tokyo, Feb. 4 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that he has instructed his first son on the phone to cooperate with an investigation into a wining-and-dining scandal involving the son.
   The scandal erupted following a weekly magazine report that the son, who works for a satellite broadcast-related firm, has wined and dined four senior Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry officials, in a possible violation of the National Public Service Ethics Act.
   "I want the ministry to respond in accordance with rules, in order not to give rise to suspicions among the people," Suga told a House of Representatives committee meeting.
   Meanwhile, the prime minister said the son is a "completely separate individual," adding that the son "has his own family and privacy."
   At the parliamentary meeting, Yoshinori Akimoto, head of the ministry's Information and Communications Bureau, admitted that he has had dinner with the son of the prime minister. Akimoto said he did not initially share the cost of the dinner, but later paid part of it.