Japan: Black Mist & Banana Skins

Freshly returned from a tour of Red China, a group of Japanese Diet members last week reported to Premier Eisaku Sato on the rampages of the Red Guards. Sato listened carefully, then smiled with the weary resignation of a man who has heard it all before. Said Sato: “We have our own Red Guards of a sort operating in the Diet these days.”

Japan’s Red Guards are members of the Socialist opposition—aided by Communists and the Komeito (Clean Government Party)—who for the past three months have charged Sato’s Cabinet with everything from fraud and embezzlement to improper installation of a toilet. As a result of those tactics, Japanese politics last week were wreathed in kuroikiri—a “black mist” of corruption and influence peddling, rumors and countercharges.

Humble Search. Sato’s troubles began in August, when a member of the Diet’s audit committee was arrested for accepting nearly $700,000 from businessmen in return for silence on spurious government contracts. Then the Socialists turned on Transportation Minister Seijuro Arafune, 59, who had not only taken two businessmen with him on a recent government-financed trip to South Korea but also ordered the Japan National Railways to make his home town an express stop. After making his apologies, Arafune resigned.

Next target was Eikichi Kambayashi-yama, director-general of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. He was charged with ordering a lavish homecoming parade—replete with sake, flag-waving schoolchildren, and an official army band—when he returned to his prefecture on Kyushu in September. Kam-bayashiyama last week told the Diet’s Cabinet committee: “I am sorry; I will humbly search my heart, and I will be more careful, hereafter.” Though the opposition shrieked, “Shame on you! Resign! Resign!”, the director-general did not quit.

Sato’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Raizo Matsuno also came under fire. Socialists were bothered by his role in granting $20 million in government loans to the ailing Kyowa sugar combine, but raised their loudest criticisms over a benjo (lavatory) that Matsuno had installed in his private office. Matsuno’s aides pointed out that he had ordered the plumbing because “he felt sorry for the toilet guard, who had to salute him every time he entered the public rest room.” Matsuno, too, managed to weather the storm.

Eloquent Apologies. Sato has responded to the opposition’s charges with eloquent apologies and promises to clear the black mist. If he can hang on until Dec. 1 without firing the accused ministers and thus tacitly acknowledge that his critics are right, he will doubtless keep his Liberal Democratic Party leadership. Then he could call a general election in January—before the squabbling Socialists and their allies could unite in opposition. The “Red Guards” could disrupt that timetable. Last week they were ripening a banana scandal, charging that government officials had accepted $60,000 for favors to banana importers. Though he seemed confident of his footing, those 60,000 skins could still cause Sato to slip.