[Anchorman]

Just weeks after the greatest election performance in its history, the Democratic Party of Japan has been wracked by sex scandals involving two of its new Diet members, but Shukan Asahi (9/14) notes that flesh-filled furor has been part and parcel of postwar Japanese politics.

While acknowledging there's nothing new about political sex scandals, Shukan Asahi says by looking back at lawmaker lecherousness over the past few decades, the nature of their dishonor has been a great indicator of the times.

"There have always been rumors about big-name politicians' sex lives," political commentator Minoru Morita tells Shukan Asahi.

Indeed, Shigeru Yoshida, prime minister in the late '40s and early to mid-'50s set up a little bungalow in the garden of his Kanagawa Prefecture home where his geisha mistress could live, and enjoyed his neighbors referring to her as his wife. Another former prime minister, Kakuei Tanaka, admitted fathering a love child with his mistress.

The late Bukichi Miki, the man who engineered the 1955 formation of the Liberal Democratic Party by merging the Diet's conservative forces, was extremely candid about his active extramarital activities. When an opposing candidate accused Miki of campaigning with six mistresses by his side, the politician quickly countered the claim with undeniable panache.

"It's true I have mistresses, but not the six the candidate claims. There are, in fact, seven," Shukan Asahi quotes the politician saying at the time.

Public acceptance of politicians' flings was widespread and most believed they were a given for those in the halls of power. Things changed, though, as time passed. And 1989 was the turning point when a geisha from Tokyo's Kagurazaka told Sunday Mainichi that then Prime Minister Sosuke Uno had offered to pay her 30,000 yen for a romp. Uno resigned in disgrace and the media's unspoken rule on reporting politicians' sex scandals was broken.

Journalist Shuntaro Torigoe, the chief editor of the Sunday Mainichi when it ran the story of Uno's dirty dalliance, says it was time for a change.

"The most important fact in the case was that he had paid money for a woman," the weekly quotes Torigoe as saying. "Being a public persona -- and as the prime minister he was the most public persona of anyone in the country -- the moral standard expected of him was much higher than the norm."

Lifting the lid on the prime minister's pranks opened the floodgates. First, Diet members Gen Funada and Kei Hata were exposed for having an affair while both were married to other people. Both were voted out of office, but later married and have returned to the Diet. Late former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto was rumored to be playing around with his Chinese interpreter. Naoto Kan had to give up the DPJ's top post amid rumors he had an affair with a TV personality. Hidenao Nakagawa resigned as Chief Cabinet Secretary when he was caught cheating with a nightclub hostess. Another nightclub hostess lifted the lid on her long-term affair with former LDP Secretary General Taku Yamasaki. Newbie LDP Diet member Yukari Sato was exposed as having had affairs with two married men. Married DPJ Policy Research Chairman Tsuyoshi Hosono had to resign after a scandal sheet caught him passionately kissing broadcaster Mona Yamamoto, who wasn't his wife, in the streets.

"These days, these kinds of scandals can ruin politicians," political expert Morita says.

Psychiatrist Rika Kayama says it's important to note how recent political scandals have been broken by tell-alls from the non-politician involved in the affair.

"As society's gap between the haves and have-nots widens, relations between the sexes become a matter of win or lose," the shrink tells Shukan Asahi. "Instead of thinking about the other party and keeping things secret like the old days, now people tend to think they are the only ones hurt when a relationship sours." (By Ryann Connell)