JAPAN: The Money Game

Who has the yen to succeed Eisaku Sato as Japan's Premier? The question is crucial because, in the election scheduled for next week within the powerful Liberal Democratic Party, whose president invariably becomes the next Premier, money had already begun to talk —and sometimes shriek. After Sato resigned with a farewell blast at the press—"I hate biased newspapers" —Japanese last week were counting not only the merits of the rival candidates but also the amounts of hard cash that they command.

Foreign Minister Takeo Fukuda, a financial expert who is closely aligned with Sato, reportedly went into the contest with the largest gunshikin, or war chest, amounting to about 1 billion yen ($3,077,000), thanks in part to the help of the domestic oil industry. Trade Minister Kakuei Tanaka, a roughhewn construction millionaire, has a fund reputed to total about $2,154,000.

Even the two lesser candidates, former Foreign Ministers Masayoshi Ohira and Takeo Miki, reported contributions of $1,720,000 and $1,520,000 for 1971 and have received hefty sums since—often from the same firms that finance the leading candidates, but like to hedge their bets.

Japan's political process is oiled in a number of ways. Besides the $128 million in political donations publicly reported last year, there has been a recent boom in so-called "political" stocks on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Thus an obscure stock can be grossly inflated in value while a candidate—tipped off in advance—makes a killing, with no capital gains tax to pay. Occasionally candidates have been known to obtain large loans from banks in the hope that after the election, business friends will "volunteer" to pay the money back.

The cash is needed not for television coverage, which is free, but for more or less openly buying delegate votes. Already the lavish wooing of the 478 delegates voting in next week's election is being conducted in the expensive geisha restaurants of Tokyo's Akasaka district. According to widely circulated rumors, a delegate can receive $1,500 for merely attending one of these persuasion sessions. If he promises his support, the reward can jump to as high as $15,000 for an ordinary delegate and $30,000 for the leader of a faction. In some cases, the faction leader will make special payments of perhaps $3,300—known as a bodan chokkl, or "bulletproof vest"—to his followers, thereby enabling him to deliver their votes in a bloc to the candidate of his choice.*

Tanaka's followers originally conceded that Fukuda would have an edge on the first ballot. But their hopes were greatly bolstered last week when Yasuhiro Nakasone, head of the party's executive committee, pledged his faction's support to their man. For his part, Fukuda is receiving strong behind-the-scenes support from Sato, who despite his graceless exit from office retains considerable political clout and is devoting his last days in office to boosting the successor of his choice.