Category:Japanese political scandals

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The series of scandals in the late 1980s and early 1990s produced a useful encyclopedia of techniques for political payoffs. Golf club memberships, artwork, stock, land, and derivatives were bought, sold or tranferred.

The largest of the scandals, Sagawa Kyubin and Recruit Cosmos, produced unforgettable scenes in Japanese media of corporate CEOs Watanabe and Ezoe defying prosecutors requests to explain the source of hundreds of millions they distributed to Japanese politicians --most of the politicians in the national congress -- or the nature of the favors being requested.

Essentially these executives served as central distributors through whom the payoffs by entire networks of corporations were funneled to lawmakers. The nature of their businesses (magazine publishing and parcel delivery) positioned them very well to receive income from every company in Japan. By now, Japanese political payoffs surely more resemble those in the west-- through conventional business dealings that are miraculously profitable.