電子データ復元を要求　桜を見る会、招待客名簿―立憲代表

　立憲民主党の枝野幸男代表は２１日、首相主催の「桜を見る会」をめぐり内閣府が招待客名簿を廃棄していた問題について「安倍政権は情報公開の意思が全くない」と非難した。招待客名簿の電子データに関しては「消去したかもしれないが、復元は可能だ」と指摘し、政府に対応を求めた。高知市内で記者団の質問に答えた。（2019/11/21-21:21）

The government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is under fire for its handling of documents again, this time over a state-funded annual cherry blossom-viewing party at the heart of yet another cronyism scandal.
   The Abe administration was previously criticized for failing to immediately confirm documents related to a scandal involving Kake Educational Institution, headed by a close friend of Abe, and condemned for tampering with those related to a scandal concerning Moritomo Gakuen, a school operator once linked to his wife, Akie.
   Over the prime minister-hosted cherry blossom party, the government has told parliament that the list of guests for this year's party was destroyed on May 9, the same day that a Japanese Communist Party lawmaker made a disclosure request for related documents.
   At a parliamentary meeting on Wednesday, a senior Cabinet Office official explained that the timing was a coincidence "resulted from various coordination efforts."
   The official claimed that the papers containing the guest list were supposed to be scrapped soon after the party, held in April, but a large shredder was unavailable at the time.