Tokyo Shimbun journalist says she is buoyed by ‘ordinary people’ to shrug off abuse and efforts by Abe’s administration to frustrate her
![Isoko Mochizuki, the troublesome thorn in Shinzo Abes side](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ab747992289364a8b3edf719eb8a49ee1f7ccccf/243_177_1458_875/master/1458.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=cb0923bafc5973a17911cfc094cef785)
“Even Abe’s friends in the media can’t ignore this,” says Isoko Mochizuki over lunch in between interviews and chasing down the day’s most important political story – a scandal involving accusations that Japan’s prime minister,
Shinzo Abe, used a taxpayer-funded cherry blossom viewing party to reward political supporters. “I think the prime minister’s office is quite concerned.”
For Mochizuki, a reporter on a left-leaning newspaper covering a conservative government likely to remain in power for some time, sakura-gate is her latest opportunity to make life uncomfortable for Abe and his colleagues.