New Scandal of the Opposite

A weekly magazine reported that the President of Your Party, one of the opponents that stance had gradually been supportive to current administration, accepted ¥800 million right before national elections in 2010 and 2012. The President, Yoshimi Watanabe, is now suspected to have violated a law on regulating money for politics, which requires accurate report of income and outcome to every lawmaker. Since Watanabe has been a close ally of Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, new scandal may affect some of policy arrangements of the administration.

According to reports, Watanabe borrowed from a business person in Tokyo ¥300 million one month before the election of the House of Councillors in 2010 and ¥500 million in previous month of the election of the House of Representatives in 2012. Although Watanabe returned ¥247 million, he still owes ¥500 million or more. According to official report, the amount of his debt from the business man right after the election in 2012 was only ¥250 million, which contradicted the fact.

The business person is the president of well-known cosmetic company called DHC. He sent the magazine a letter revealing his involvement of the money lending to Watanabe. Direct reason why he opened the secret was that Watanabe rejected requests of some lawmakers to leave his party, in which he thought it was irrelevant.

Watanabe made several mistakes in dealing with the problem. He explained that the money was used only for his private purpose. But former governor of Tokyo, Naoki Inose, had stepped down by his money scandal with the same reasoning as Watanabe did. Insisting on separating it from the elections, Watanabe told that he used the money to buy “fortunate rake,” a kind of luck sold in shrine festivals. That ridiculous explanation impressed people of his lack of seriousness. Making matters worse, Watanabe decided to investigate the issue inside the party, which most parties criticized as concealing the facts.

Your Party will be in jeopardy of elimination, because it has been highly dependent on Watanabe’s leadership. With this unjustifiable scandal, the party is going to be unpopular. Most young lawmakers in the party become vulnerable in next election. It is likely that more will leave the party soon.

For Abe, losing an ally in the opposite will affect his policy, namely in reinterpretation of the Constitution for exercising collective self-defense, the issue that Watanabe strongly supported. The impact will, however, be limited, considering small size of Your Party. It may more worrisome for Abe to see the law enforcement office moved against his preference than the fact of losing one of his political supporters.