EDITORIAL: Money and politics

Chiyomi Kobayashi of the Democratic Party of Japan said Monday she would resign as a Lower House lawmaker to take responsibility for illegal contributions to her election campaign last summer.

The scandal broke while Yukio Hatoyama was prime minister. He urged her to take the blame. Kobayashi clearly had no choice. Still, her decision came too late.

The scandals involving money and politics that shook the Hatoyama administration disappointed many voters. "Not you guys, as well," they must have thought. Public support for the DPJ soared after Hatoyama, in announcing his resignation, exhorted his fellow party members to work to regain voters' trust by making Japanese politics clean again. This resonated with the public. That is precisely why the new administration of Prime Minister Naoto Kan should not act as if the leadership change and Kobayashi's resignation had settled the matter.

Kan's replies to opposition lawmakers' questions about the issue during Monday's Diet session were rather disheartening, however. Take the political funds scandal that embroiled Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ's former secretary-general, for instance. Ozawa's three former aides, including Lower House member Tomohiro Ishikawa, have been indicted on charges of violating the Political Fund Control Law. But prosecutors, citing insufficient evidence, decided not to indict Ozawa himself. However, a prosecution inquest committee concluded that Ozawa should be indicted, and the panel is examining the matter for the second time after prosecutors dropped the case again.

It is intolerable that Ozawa has not even appeared before the Lower House Deliberative Council on Political Ethics to offer an explanation. But Kan only said that Ozawa had taken political responsibility by stepping down from his party post. Kan avoided making meaningful remarks about the issue, citing the judicial panel's examination of the case. As for the proposal to summon Ozawa to testify before the Diet, Kan said the decision was up to the Diet.

Kan took a similar attitude toward the scandal involving Hatoyama, who received 15 million yen a month in unreported donations from his mother. Despite the fact that the conviction of his former aide has been finalized, Hatoyama has yet to offer an explanation about the allegations. Hatoyama had said he would try to give as many details as possible about how the money was used when his aide's trial was over. Answering questions about Hatoyama's failure to keep his word, Kan only said that Hatoyama's resignation as prime minister was "very significant."

If this is Kan's honest opinion of these scandals, we have to say, "You too, Kan-san?" With this way of thinking, he will only disappoint people's expectations for his administration.

Revelations about questionable accounting of office expenses by national policy minister Satoshi Arai's political organization offer new evidence that politicians are not taking the problems of money and politics seriously enough. It is distressing to hear DPJ lawmakers say Arai should not be criticized because he didn't violate any law or his response to the allegations is better than the Liberal Democratic Party legislators who did not submit relevant receipts when they faced similar accusations.

We put so much importance on the issue of money in politics because it was the starting point for the political reform that led to the change of government last year. We should remember that the 1988 Recruit stocks-for-favors scandal put pressure on lawmakers to put an end to corruption in money-power politics. More than two decades later, regime change finally arrived. Why then is politics still polluted by shady money? There is no way to restore public confidence in politics without tackling this central question.

If nothing is done, the Upper House election this summer will again turn on the issue of money in politics. We cannot help but wonder if any party can demonstrate the ability to clean house. Voters, sick and tired of money scandals, will keep watch on the parties' responses.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 15