TOKYO - Allegations of money laundering within the Democratic Party of Japan
(DPJ) appear to have dashed hopes that the ruling party would distinguish
itself from the scandal-plagued conservative administration that ruled over
Japan for almost half a century.
DPJ stalwart Ichiro Ozawa, the party's secretary general, is under
investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office over a land purchase in 2004 by
his political funding group, Rikuzankai.
Money used to buy the land, which amounted to over US$4 million, allegedly came
from illegally obtained corporate
donations, specifically from a construction firm building a dam in Ozawa's home
prefecture, Iwate.
The company's executives had confessed to paying $500,000 to an aide of Ozawa
as a donation after being awarded a contract to build the dam in Iwate, located
in the Tohoku region on Honshu island, Japan's main island comprising the
cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Yokohama.
Pressures have been brought to bear on Ozawa to come clean on the Rikuzankai
funds.
According to some polls, public approval ratings for Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama's cabinet have dropped by double digits to 40% from 50% last December
since news of arrests related to the scandal broke over the weekend.
Other polls show a groundswell of public opinion, hovering around 70%, that
Ozawa should resign from his post and take responsibility for the scandal.
Ozawa is widely credited with steering the erstwhile opposition party to a
resounding victory last September, bringing an end to the Liberal Democratic
Party's (LDP's) once monolithic political dominance.
A one-time member of the LDP, Ozawa led the DPJ until an earlier funding
scandal forced him to step down as party president early last year, when his
former right-hand man Yukio Hatoyama took over the party leadership.
In addition to falling approval ratings, the scandal seems to signal to voters
that the DPJ is no different from the LDP, which was ousted as the main ruling
party in last year's Lower House elections.
"The priority for me is the economy and unemployment," said Hiro Fujita, a
businessman in his 30s. "He should resign so the government can focus on the
economy."
"It's politics as usual, just as corrupt. I think he should resign," said Yushi
Komatsu, a university student.
But Ozawa seems undeterred by a swelling chorus of calls for his resignation,
vowing to continue performing his public duties. "I absolutely cannot accept
what has happened," said a defiant Ozawa, 67, referring to the arrests, during
the first national convention of the DPJ, held on Saturday, since the new
government came to power four months ago.
Three of his former aides were arrested on charges of misreporting campaign
donations. One of them is 36-year-old Tomohiro Ishikawa, a Lower House member
who belongs to the DPJ.
"The arrests were conducted to match the timing of our party convention. I
cannot accept this. If this is allowed, the future of Japanese democracy will
be very dark," he said during the convention. The third arrest was made during
the gathering. The arrests are likely to negatively impact how DPJ will fare in
a crucial mid-year election due in July.
"The money laundering scandal surrounding Ichiro Ozawa and his political
fundraising organization, Rikuzankai, is extremely damaging to the DPJ-led
government in Japan," said Weston Konishi, adjunct fellow at the
Washington-based Mansfield Foundation, an independent organization that
promotes understanding and cooperation among the nations and peoples of Asia
and the United States.
"Unless Ozawa can provide a convincing argument that he was in no way involved
in the money laundering operation, it seems likely that he will indeed have to
resign, ending a long and storied career of one of the most influential
politicians in recent Japanese history."
As secretary general, the beleaguered ruling party stalwart is also the key
campaign strategist for the upcoming Upper House elections.
Without Ozawa's campaign expertise, there are fears the DPJ will not be able to
gain enough seats in the next parliamentary elections - deemed key to shedding
its coalition partners so it can fully implement its legislative agenda, noted
Konishi. The administration's proposed 7.2 trillion yen (US$79 billion)
stimulus package may also be derailed as a result of the scandal.
"If the Hatoyama administration cannot present itself as a cleaner alternative,
it may allow the LDP to make a political comeback," said Konishi.
Konishi also warned that a sizable bloc of the DPJ, known as the "Ozawa
Children", would be tainted by their association with the powerful party leader
and the Rikuzankai scandal. "If some of them are at all implicated directly in
the scandal, it could significantly hollow out the rank-and-file of the DPJ,"
he said.
At the televised DPJ convention, Ozawa, reacting to the allegations against him
and his party, railed against the prosecutors, accusing them of conducting a
"politically motivated" investigation.
Miki Tanikawa, an expert on Japanese international relations and history,
belied his claim.
"Some say that prosecutors, who are bureaucrats, didn't like the idea of Prime
Minister Yukio Hatoyama trying to curtail the power of bureaucrats. Prosecutors
have different roles than administrative bureaucrats and they could not care
less about Hatoyama's bureaucratic reform, which doesn't try to limit the
powers of the prosecutors at all."
Hatoyama was swept into power on a campaign platform to curb the unbridled
powers of the Japanese bureaucracy, include those of prosecutors.
Prosecutors are still dependent on government expenditures, but their first
concern is that they remain powerful and independent and are able to arrest
corrupt politicians, Tanikawa explained.
He added that by showing their prosecutorial muscles, prosecutors maintain
their morale and feel good about themselves. "That's the tradition of Japanese
prosecutors."
Amid the scandal, Hatoyama has stood behind Ozawa. He said he believed and
trusted Ozawa and the "party has to stick together in solidarity" against the
serious accusations.
Still, some members of the media claim that cracks have begun to show within
the DPJ, some of whose members believe he should resign.
Notwithstanding the sentiments within the party, the DPJ's tarnished image does
not bode well for a party that once presented itself as reformist to people who
had long been alienated from politics.
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