A senior communications ministry official — who played a key role in achieving Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's major political goal of lowering mobile phone fees — admitted Thursday that he had dined with executives of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., a potential ethics code violation.
The official's admission in the Diet came a day after weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that he was treated by the executives to three expensive dinners, costing a total of more than ¥170,000.
However, Yasuhiko Taniwaki, vice minister for policy coordination at the ministry, said he paid the amount asked by the telecom giant and added, "I thought it did not violate the ethics code, so I did not report it."