It's a new year, but old political habits die hard

It seems the number of visitors to a shrine or temple at the beginning of the year is determined by the size and rank of the place of prayer, as well as the population of the surrounding area. That explains the big crowds at well-known shrines and temples in major cities. The size of the crowd is also evidence of their power. Apparently, the same can be said of politicians.

By the evening of New Year's Day in 1985, about 650 people visited the home of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka (1918-1993) in Tokyo's Mejirodai district. It was the last new year for Tanaka as the strongman behind the scenes because he suffered a stroke two months later. The proprietor of a nearby sushi restaurant later said he delivered sushi for 200 people on New Year's Day. The sight of people visiting the Tanaka residence to pay their respects was a symbol of old, factional politics.

A quarter of a century later, a re-enactment of the same scene occurred. I heard that 166 Diet members visited the private residence of Ichiro Ozawa, secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, in the Fukazawa district of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. That means 23 percent of all lawmakers in the two houses of the Diet were present.

The gathering was so large that it had to be split into two groups, each of which was treated to a banquet in a large room. The power of the "Ozawa Shrine" and the population surrounding it appear exceptional in the political world. I don't think a man of his caliber would treat people differently depending on whether they came to pay their respects at the beginning of the year. And yet many lawmakers apparently thought it would be safer to show up.

With the Upper House election to be held six months from now, many are relying on Ozawa's strong arm and resourcefulness. In December, when he visited China with a vast entourage of new lawmakers, he demonstrated his belief in the logic of "force of numbers," a trait he possibly inherited from the former Tanaka faction of the Liberal Democratic Party. Does he want to increase the number of followers and turn the DPJ into a group made up entirely of Ozawa cohorts?

Newspapers on New Year's Day devoted considerable space to Ozawa's funding scandal. I don't know what benefits Ozawa or the lawmakers who visited him during the New Year holidays were expecting from their trips to his residence. Maybe they sought protection from evil. Possibly they offered a prayer for victory. Either way, I feel ill at ease that this old practice is continuing in a new year following a major change of government.

It is the same kind of uneasiness I feel when I am served a dish I did not order.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 5