AS THE stock market plunges and belts tighten, Japan's government is fretting that high streets will be next to feel the pinch. But at least one man is doing his bit to keep up conspicuous consumer spending: the nation's prime minister.
Taro Aso (68) is taking heat for a bon-vivant lifestyle that saw him spend almost every night of the working week during his first month in office at top hotels, restaurants and bars.
In the most widely ridiculed incident, the prime minister and his team stopped off at a supermarket to discuss rising food prices before heading for the luxury Imperial Hotel for a three-hour session.
The scion of a wealthy, well-connected family, Mr Aso was famous for his extravagant tastes before he took office last month. Political expenditure records published in a magazine last week show he ran up a restaurant and bar bill of well over $500,000 (€394,000) between 2005 and 2007.
According to the Weekly Asahi, Mr Aso left behind more than $100,000 at his favourite watering hole in Tokyo's upmarket Roppongi district during that time.
Over a 21-day period in September and October this year, the prime minister wined and dined at 32 establishments, often with a retinue of associates.
Mr Aso and his immediate family - his wife, son and daughter - have assets worth about $4.66 million, according to records he disclosed yesterday, making him the second-richest politician in his cabinet.
He owns properties in an exclusive Tokyo area and in southern Japan, as well as three cars including a 1972-model BMW, 58 artworks and seven golf club memberships, the records showed.
Mr Aso defended his lifestyle this week, at one point snapping at a reporter who questioned whether the extravagance was appropriate as the nation teeters on the brink of recession.
"You have distorted the facts by reporting as if I went to high-class restaurants every night," he said, before accusing journalists of trying to "frame" him.
"I won't change my style," he said later. "Luckily I have money and can afford it."
Mr Aso's handlers in the ruling Liberal Democrats (LDP) are worried that the stories may damage his image as a politician with the common touch. The comic-reading, straight-talking leader is one of the few people left in the charisma-free party thought capable of leading it to another election victory.
Mr Aso has consistently dodged questions on a date for the long-awaited general election, which could see the LDP lose its half-century grip on power.
"The prime minister is always high strung [at work]," an anonymous aide told the Asahi, in a bid to spin the potential PR damage. "Unless he goes to a bar and smokes a cigar to cool down, he cannot sleep."