'L' scandals that reflect the times
(From The Japan Times August 1 issue)

田中角栄元首相逮捕から30年

    The scandal surfaced as Japan was riding a wave of high economic growth. The scandal was a product of the money-powered politics that prevailed in those years.

    Over the past three decades, Japan's politics has gone through changes — especially in the last five years since Junichiro Koizumi became prime minister. Koizumi's reform politics pushed deregulation and reduced public works projects, thus weakening collusive relationships among politicians, bureaucrats and business leaders. He concentrated a large portion of the power held by the governing Liberal-Democratic Party in the hands of the prime minister, thereby reducing the roles played by intraparty factions, the erstwhile hotbeds of money politics.

    A bribery scandal of the size and type of the Lockheed affair might seem impossible in the political environment today. The last bribery case involving a Diet member occurred in 2002 when Muneo Suzuki, a powerful LDP Diet member at the time, was arrested. But Koizumi's deregulation policy, especially with regard to the stock market, has led to new types of crime aimed at outwitting market regulations.

    Recent examples are the cases of Takafumi Horie, the founder of the Internet service provider Livedoor Co., and Yoshiaki Murakami, the maverick head of the Murakami investment fund. They were arrested on suspicion of committing crimes regarded as byproducts of Koizumi's reform politics.

    The nature of the Lockheed affair is completely different from that of Livedoor and Murakami. The questionable money that changed hands in the Lockheed affair was used to buy political influence for business purposes, while the core of the Livedoor and Murakami cases involves speculative profits gained in violation of market rules. The common denominator of these cases, though, is that they clearly carry the imprint of the political culture prevalent at the time of their occurrence.

    The Lockheed affair occurred during the years of pork-barrel politics, when the main role of politicians was to bring back tax money collected by the central government to their constituencies, especially in the form of public works and subsidies. The system enabled politicians to squeeze contributions from business enterprises that benefited from the exercise of their political influence. Such "contributions" were in turn used to finance political activities, which included running intraparty factions and financially helping faction members.

    By bringing home the tax money, politicians may have helped to reduce the economic gap between urban and rural areas. Money was a prime mover in the system that operated while Tanaka was at the apex of his political career.

    In the Lockheed affair, Tanaka was charged with having received ¥500 million in installments in 1973 and 1974 from Marubeni Corp., a sales agent for Lockheed, which wanted Tanaka to persuade All Nippon Airways to purchase Lockheed L-1011 TriStar jetliners. Marubeni's approach to Tanaka was part of a larger scheme in which Lockheed was trying to sell the same type of jetliners to various airline companies outside the United States. Marubeni succeeded, and All Nippon Airways, which was about to order McDonnell Douglas' DC-10s, switched to L-1011 TriStars.

    Before his arrest and after his money-centered political activities were exposed, Tanaka resigned as prime minister Dec. 9, 1974. Even after his resignation, he ruled a large faction behind the scenes. His goal was to control a majority of LDP Lower House members so he could exert sufficient influence to elect a prime minister.

    Tanaka's way of calling the shots earned him the nickname "Yami Shogun (one who wields power secretly)." He was convicted by the Tokyo district and high courts and was sentenced to four years in prison. He died Dec. 16, 1993, while his appeal was pending before the Supreme Court. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, Tanaka's arrested secretary told prosecutors that the ¥500 million was divided into blocks of ¥20 million and then distributed to 25 candidates in the 1974 Upper House election.

    The Lockheed affair underscored the need to deal with the problem of money and politicians. That lesson has to be seriously learned. Further efforts must ensure greater transparency in the flow of political funds.

The Japan Times Weekly: August 5, 2006
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    この30年間、特に小泉政権の5年間の構造改革で、国内政治は大きく変わった。規制緩和の結果、公共投資が削減され、政官財の癒着が減った。権力の大部分は首相に集約され、金権政治の温床になっていた自民党派閥は弱体化した。

    しかし、株式市場の規制緩和は新型の犯罪をひき起した。たとえば、ライブドアの堀江貴文元社長、村上ファンドの村上世彰元代表の逮捕は、小泉構造改革の副産物といえる。ビジネスのために政治権力を利用したロッキード事件は、投機的利益のために株式市場のルールに違反したライブドア、村上ファンド事件とは本質的に異なるが、どの事件も、その時代の政治文化を反映している。

    ロッキード事件の時代には、国会議員が選挙区の地盤固めのため、地元に公共事業を誘致し、政府補助金を獲得するのが当然視されていた。議員の影響力の行使で恩恵を被った企業からの政治献金は派閥の運営資金、議員の政治活動資金などに使われた。

    田中元首相は1973〜74年にロッキード社から代理店・丸紅を通じ、分割払いで総額5億円を受け取 ったという。元首相の圧力で、全日空は次期主力旅客機の機種をマクダネル・ダグラス社のDC-10からロッキードのL-1011トライスターに変更した。

    田中元首相は、逮捕前の1974年12月9日に辞任したが、その後も自民党の大派閥を支配し、「闇将軍」として党に君臨した。その後、東京地裁、高裁で懲役4年の有罪判決を受け、 最高裁に控訴中、1993年12月16日に病死した

   。 ロッキード事件が浮き彫りにした金権政治問題は未解決である。政治資金の流れの透明性を高めるための、さらなる努力が求められる。