Japanese Officials Drinking Party Until Midnight... 'Naeronambul' Controversy

An Incident Occurred at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Main Agency for COVID-19 Management

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Public officials belonging to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW), the central agency leading COVID-19 prevention policies in Japan, are causing controversy for holding a late-night drinking party amid the spread of COVID-19.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun on the 30th, 23 employees from the MHLW's Labor and Welfare Bureau, which oversees elderly medical and welfare affairs, held a farewell party on the night of the 24th at a pub in Ginza, Tokyo.

The drinking gathering with alcohol started around 7 p.m. and continued until midnight as employees finished work and gradually joined.

The day of the farewell party was after the state of emergency was lifted in four metropolitan areas including Tokyo, but since the number of new infections had not significantly decreased, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government was requesting restaurants and other multi-use establishments to operate only until 9 p.m.

The Japanese government also mentioned that gatherings involving drinking or long meetings with many participants are representative environments that increase the risk of COVID-19 infection after the state of emergency was lifted, urging citizens to refrain and recommending gatherings of four people or fewer if unavoidable.

Additionally, when using restaurants, it is recommended to choose places with partitions installed to prevent droplet infection.

However, it is known that the problematic establishment used by the MHLW officials did not have partitions installed.

One MHLW employee who participated in the problematic farewell party was quoted by the Yomiuri Shimbun as saying, "I recognized it was not a good thing, but I wanted to send off the employee leaving the department."

Facing a surge of public criticism over this incident, the MHLW stated, "This was something that should not have happened given our position of requesting the public to prevent the spread of infection," and added, "We will consider disciplinary action against the employees involved."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.