DOI: / Shin Kanemaru and the Tragedy of Japan s Political System

Transcription

1 DOI: / Shin Kanemaru and the Tragedy of Japan s Political System

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3 Shin Kanemaru and the Tragedy of Japan s Political System Uldis Kruze Associate Professor of History, University of San Francisco, USA DOI: /

4 Uldis Kruze 2015 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: PDF ISBN: A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. doi: / DOI: /

5 Contents Acknowledgments Introduction and Overview 1 The Young Kanemaru ( ): Early Life and Career in Yamanashi Prefecture 1 2 Kanemaru as a Member of the National Diet ( ) 14 3 Kanemaru as Cabinet Minister ( ) 34 4 LDP Work Horse ( ) 50 5 Stage Manager of Japan s Bubble Economy Political World ( ) 61 6 The King without a Crown ( ) 73 7 Cracks Appear in Kanemaru s Power Base : Yamanashi Prefecture in Skewered in Public, Humiliated Behind Bars ( ): The Kingmaker Falls from Grace and Serves a Symbolic Penance 92 9 The Kanemaru Legacy 104 Bibliography 113 Index 118 vi vii DOI: / v

6 Acknowledgments I have incurred many debts in pursuing this book project. To my wife, Ann, I owe a deep debt of gratitude for her steadfast confidence and helpful encouragement that enabled me to complete this project. To my daughters, Diana and Vanessa, I express appreciation for letting my scholarly side sometimes displace my fatherly role. To the University of San Francisco and its Faculty Development Fund, I am indebted for the generous financial support that enabled me to do field work in Japan during summer breaks, winter intersession periods, and two Sabbaticals. I want to thank the many Japanese students at the University of San Francisco who have served as my language assistants: Ai Hamaji, Miwako Kisu, Hanae Ono, Taka Terada, Koichiro Hongo, and especially Kayoko Aoki. Japanese colleagues such as Professors Shintaro Shiina, Yoshiaki Kobayashi, and Tsuyoshi Mifune provided valuable insights into the world of Japanese politics for me. Staff members at Yamanashi Prefectural Library located materials for me, as did staff members at the National Diet Library in Tokyo. I want to thank my colleagues at USF who read and commented on early drafts of this project: Professors Scott McElwain, Julio Moreno, Steve Roddy, Margaret Kuo, Ellen Huang, and Jeff Buckwalter. All provided helpful encouragement, guidance, and suggestions. Needless to say, I remain solely responsible for any errors that remain. vi DOI: /

7 Introduction and Overview American political leaders from Eisenhower to Obama have frequently asserted that the Japanese political system shares our democratic values. And Japan s current government is a far cry from the fascist and Emperor dominated regime of the 1930s and early 1940s. But is Japan a genuinely democratic state? If it is, why do its citizens have such a low regard for its most prominent practitioners? Why do they label the system a spectator democracy ruled by money politics? Despite the formal appearance of a competitive, working democracy, Japanese politics in reality is dominated by money, informal connections, and collusive practices. The promise of democracy championed and extolled during the American Occupation period ( ) has been undermined and corroded by the informal apparatus of rule by fixers and power brokers. Whether known as shadow shoguns or stage managers, these manipulators of the Japanese political system often remain in the background and out of reach of public accountability. 1 This book is about one of those stage managers, Shin Kanemaru ( ), who played a central role in Japanese politics during the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. His collusion with the governors of Yamanashi prefecture and Japan s construction industry created a powerful network of money and influence that served as Kanemaru s financial catapult to national prominence. In addition to three stints in the Cabinet in the early 1970s and a term as Deputy Prime Minister in the mid-1980s, Kanemaru also served as a top-tier LDP DOI: / vii

8 viii Introduction and Overview administrator and committee workhorse for many years. Working behind the scenes, Kanemaru heavily influenced the rise to power (or their fall) of three Japanese Prime Ministers (Nakasone, Takeshita, and Uno) and controlled the administrations of two of them (Kaifu and Miyazawa). His support (or opposition) could make or break the political careers of others and earned him the sobriquet of the Don of Nagata-cho. Kanemaru s fall from power in late 1992 and early 1993 came amidst a media blitz that divulged bizarre and scandalous aspects of his political life. Police reportedly found more than $50 million in cash, gold bullion, and securities in Kanemaru s apartment near the Japanese Diet when he was arrested for tax evasion in March, Parts of that loot were hidden in false bottoms in his living room sofa as well as under the floorboards of his residence. James Sterngold of the New York Times told an American readership that there was suspicion that some of the money could be connected with these [yakuza or gangster] groups. The discovery of more than 200 pounds of gold bullion increased such concerns because gold is common currency in the Japanese underworld. 2 Kanemaru s political career exemplifies what I would call the tragedy of Japanese democracy: ostensibly democratic and competitive, but in reality a system based on influence, money, collusion, and personal connections. Kanemaru skillfully exploited the weaknesses of this system to enrich himself and his cronies, and in the process discredited the authenticity of Japan s democracy in the eyes of its citizens. Though paying lip service to the ideals of democracy, Kanemaru (like the Liberal Democratic Party itself) did little to actually promote it, and in reality hindered and obstructed its development. On one level, this is a political biography about a local provincial figure from Yamanashi prefecture who gradually rose to considerable prominence and power on Japan s national stage. This was not a rags to riches story, but local riches to national riches. Kanemaru was, in many respects, an ordinary Japanese politician who, through money, connections, and timely action ( luck and pluck, as New York s political boss Harold Tammany reportedly said) came to become one of Japan s most important political actors. On another level, this is also a book about the fragile and incomplete nature of political democracy in Japan since World War II. Kanemaru s abuse of the weaknesses in Japan s political system ( I saw my chances and I took them, as Tammany would say) exposed the dysfunctional DOI: /

9 Introduction and Overview ix nature of Japan s democracy, and spurred demands in the 1980s and 1990s for systemic reforms that would create a more accountable and transparent regime. While Japan s political system is no longer dominated by the unique mix of fascism, feudalism, and militarism that existed prior to 1945, the roots of its democracy are not very deep. In many ways, Japan resembles a hereditary oligarchy operating within a facade of spectator democracy and lubricated with what many Japanese call money politics. The Kanemaru story is also intertwined with the history of the postwar US-Japan relationship. Kanemaru was a staunch supporter of the US throughout his political career. Whether he was helping to pass the highly contested revision and extension of the US-Japan Security Treaty in the summer of 1960, allocating Japanese funding for American forces stationed in Japan in 1978, opening Japan s markets to American goods in the early 1990s, or helping secure passage of the domestically unpopular Peace Keeping Operations (PKO) law of 1992, Kanemaru was always ready to carry America s water in Japan. Kanemaru was an important player within the pro-american Japanese political elite committed to US goals in East Asia during the Cold War. He tartly admonished other Japanese conservatives, such as Shintaro Ishihara, co-author of The Japan That Can Say No, to stay in line with US leadership. Though some felt they could thumb their noses at Uncle Sam once Japan began to be regarded as Number One in the 1980s, Kanemaru spelled it out plainly: Japan can exist because the United States exists, but it is not the other way around. 3 Despite the lacquered image that his publicists and acolytes tried to create of the Don, Kanemaru was, in many ways, a typical and ordinary Japanese politician. His life was embedded in the political culture of Japan s elite, and reflected the highly personal, feudalistic nature of relationships where seniority, loyalty, and giri-on reciprocal obligations represented the norm. Kanemaru was also a master of schmoozing and deal making. Whether he was conveniently losing bets at mahjongg games to other politicos, exchanging pleasantries at weddings or funerals, or engaged in serious negotiations at exclusive restaurants, Kanemaru was throughout a traditional Japanese man who loved the world of politics: I like it better than eating. 4 This narrative is also about Kanemaru s central role in what came to be known as the 55 system in Japanese politics. 5 Summarized briefly, the 55 system emerged in 1955 as a marriage of convenience DOI: /

10 x Introduction and Overview between Japan s politically conservative (and therefore inaccurately labeled) Liberal and Democratic Parties that resulted in the creation of an equally mislabeled Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). This alliance, engineered by conservative stalwarts such as Ichiro Hatoyama and Taketora Ogata, created a conservative coalition in opposition to the growing influence and power of the Left wing or reformist camp in Japanese politics led by the Japanese Socialist Party (JSP). The conservative merger of 1955 enabled the LDP to maintain a continuous grip over Japan s Diet until 1993, a remarkable run of 38 years of unbroken power. In many ways, Kanemaru could be considered the poster boy of the 55 system. In the rough and tumble world of conservative factions that constituted the LDP, and that Ihei Aoki (Prime Minister Takeshita s chief secretary in the 1980s) once compared to Japan s Warring States era, Kanemaru thrived. Within the conservative camp, Kanemaru was viewed as someone who could adjust relationships and achieve compromises; who could listen carefully; and who could help those who could help you. In the 55 system fueled by money and numbers, Kanemaru was both a prodigious fundraiser as well as a generous benefactor to political associates. Kanemaru also skillfully ensnared the leadership of the Opposition, becoming a thick pipe (the Japanese euphemism for funding conduit) to the leadership of the JSP, securing Socialist acquiescence and maintaining conservative power within Diet proceedings. When Kanemaru fell from power in 1992 and spent time behind bars in 1993, the 55 system lost one of its essential components, and, not surprisingly, collapsed after the summer of 1993, splintering into a mélange of disparate conservative groupings. Was Kanemaru the indispensable glue that held this clientelist framework in place? Or did his own actions choosing the unpopular and abrasive Ichiro Ozawa as his successor precipitate and accelerate the collapse of his faction and the LDP with it? This book belongs to the realist school of Japanese politics (Chalmers Johnson, Karel van Wolferen et al.) that focuses on the incomplete and flawed nature of Japanese democracy. It follows and builds on the perspectives presented in Peter Herzog s Japan s Pseudo-Democracy (New York University Press, 1993), which points out the dysfunctional nature of the Japanese political system. And it is validated by the conclusions reached in Yoshiaki Kobayashi s recent book, Malfunctioning Democracy in Japan (Lexington Books, 2012). DOI: /

11 Introduction and Overview xi Sources The principal sources used to write this narrative have been in Japanese. Primary sources include newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and the Yamanashi Nichi Nichi Shimbun; the Proceedings of the Lower House of the Diet available online and at the National Diet Library (an important source for the time when Kanemaru served as a Government minister between 1972 and 1978); interviews with journalists from the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun; interviews with scholars of Japanese politics; an interview with Mr. Yamano, the head of Kanemaru s koenkai (or political support group) in Yamanashi; and 50 interviews with residents of Kofu, Yamanashi in Japan s Freedom of Information Act (passed in 1999) has not been helpful. For example, in 2005, I went to the Self-Defense Forces Agency Headquarters in Ichigaya, Tokyo, and applied to secure documents relating to Mr. Kanemaru when he served as Director of the SDF Agency in The Agency was prompt and responded within the promised 30-day deadline. However, the brown manila envelope from the SDF contained only seven pages of material relating to Mr. Kanemaru, and not a single original document. All the information provided was of a secondary nature, and included only one direct quote from Mr. Kanemaru, a quote that appears in the public record in the Lower House Parliamentary Record. Could it be that Mr. Kanemaru never produced a single written document when he was Director-General of the Self-Defense Forces? Why would the SDF Agency, even 25 years after the time when Mr. Kanemaru was its Director, still withhold documents for a historical project? There is a substantial secondary literature in Japanese on the Don. Japan s National Diet Library (accessed in June, 2012) listed 257 journal articles about Kanemaru. While many are ephemeral and sensationalistic, others offer careful analysis and are based on firsthand knowledge. Much of Kanemaru s activities cannot be independently verified. Kanemaru preferred to work behind the screen. He wanted to keep his sources of money secret (the jinmyaku or money web ) to prevent competitors in the political world from acquiring those sources for themselves. Another reason for secrecy was tax evasion. Kanemaru s fund-raising activities, if fully disclosed, would have required him to pay taxes or would have exposed him to legal sanctions for not reporting it DOI: /

12 xii Introduction and Overview as income. Still another major reason for secrecy was to hide the money trail (what Japanese call the pipe ) that Kanemaru used to funnel cash from supporters to other favored recipients. Though much remains unknown, much can still be inferred and deduced from the circumstances and patterns of Kanemaru s overall behavior. Japan s press corps, while careful what they wrote in their published accounts, often left out parts of the story that could be inferred from context. Editorials, in particular, were couched in general terms and permeated with strong ethical admonitions against activities concealed behind the Chrysanthemum screen. And the screen was lifted after 1992 when Kanemaru faced a hailstorm of criticism from both Japan s elite as well as its general citizenry. English language sources (both primary and secondary) have also been a valuable source of information. As Kanemaru s powers in the Diet grew, he became increasingly important to American and British policy makers. For example, the New York Times (accessed October 30, 2014) carries 165 articles that include his name. The Financial Times and The Economist were sensitive to Kanemaru s comments as they reflected major economic policy directions (tax policy, structural reform) in the 1980s and early 1990s. Notes 1 The late Yale political scientist Chitoshi Yanaga identified General Aritomo Yamagata as the first wirepuller or kuromaku in Japan s parliamentary system of government during the 1890s. Cf. Chitoshi Yanaga, Japanese People and Politics (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1956), New York Times (March 14, 1993). 3 New York Times (February 13, 1992). 4 Koichiro Sueki, ed., Ikki sugireba tsutoshi machigaeru kanemaru shin goroku nijyushichi nenkann no ashiato (If You Go Too Far, You ll Stab Each Other: The Public Record of Shin Kanemaru s 27 Years of Press Conferences) (Tokyo: Yokobasu Publications, 1985). 5 For an overview of the 55 system, see Gerald Curtis, The Japanese Way of Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), DOI: /