Former vaccine chief Taro Kono vocal over slow booster rollout

Taro Kono, the former minister in charge of COVID-19 vaccinations, is increasingly making demands to the government over its rollout of booster shots.

Kono, currently chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Public Relations Headquarters, is seen to be irritated by the slow pace of inoculations under the administration of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The former minister’s experience in accelerating the rollout of first and second shots when he was in charge under Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is believed to be the reason for his impatience.

After Kishida unveiled Monday his government’s target of vaccinating 1 million people per day, Kono told people close to him of his frustration that the target was not 1.2 million.

He is increasingly interfering with the government’s vaccination approach behind the scenes, telling officials at the Prime Minister’s Office that the rollout should be “done the same way we did it” under the Suga administration and that “vaccination vouchers should be distributed quickly.”

“His interest in vaccinations, which he lost temporarily, has returned after seeing the slow rollout,” a person close to Kono said.

Kono has also started to voice his frustration in public. He accepted a request by the Prime Minister’s Office to appear in a video discussing vaccinations with current vaccine minister Noriko Horiuchi.

Later, Kono criticized what he sees as the Kishida administration’s insufficient support for Horiuchi, saying on Twitter that the size of a team that assists the vaccine minister had shrunk significantly.

“The team was based next to the minister’s room when I was in office, but now it is in an underground room in a neighboring building,” Kono said.

The Prime Minister’s Office plans to improve the staffing of Horiuchi’s team after the criticism.

Kono also had his share of missteps as vaccine minister, with a shortage of doses for workplace vaccinations forcing him to abruptly suspend the acceptance of requests from businesses.

“The trauma of confusion under the Suga administration is one of the reasons for the slow vaccinations,” a senior member of the Prime Minister’s Office said, unhappy with Kono’s demands.