Long String Of Scandals

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 17

Long String Of Scandals

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) TOKYO, Dec. 4. The newly reshuffled Japanese Cabinet pledged on television last night to sweep away the “black mist” of corruption which has caused political scandals in Tokyo. \

After a drastic Cabinet reshuffle by the Prime Minister, Mr Sato, all 19 Cabinet Ministers went on television and promised they would resign should they ever become sullied by misconduct. They also pledged to keep their private affairs out of public life. Over the last few months, there has been a long string of scandals involving politicians in corrupt practices. The affairs came to be known as “the black mist.”

In his reshuffle, the Prime Minister has dropped all but three members of his former Cabinet. Mr Sato issued a statement pledging himself to sweep away all abuses. The “black mist” started with the arrest of a promin-

ent member of the ruling Liberal-Democrat Party on charges of extortion, fraud and tax dodging. Other cases swiftly followed:— The then Minister of Transport, was discovered to have rescheduled express trains to stop in his own electoral district.

A former Minister of Agriculture issued a schedule for a visit to Canada and the United States that took in Las Vagas and Acapulco. The Defence Agency director took a military band with him on a visit to his constituency. There was a proposal to re-

sell land, bought in a Government land reform programme, back to original owners at prices prevailing 20 years ago.

The latest scandal came with the resignation of the Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament after his name was linked with the head of a finance company accused of fraud.

The shake-up did not mollify Opposition parties. All four groups—the Socialist Party, the Democratic Socialists, the Buddhist Clean Government Party and the Communists—were pursuing efforts to force a national election with corruption as the central issue.