Liberal Japan

Some stray thoughts on Takoshikatsu Matsuoka suicide as the story develops…

1. The biggest news I think has been Muneo Suzuki saying that Matsuoka wanted to confess and apologize for all he had done, but that the LDP powers that be would not let him. This sort of pushes the blame onto Abe quite a bit. This story is getting a lot of attention. Someone important at the LDP flat out denied the story, but Suzuki refused to back down. The media is really eating this up. Suzuki is the last person I would want to believe as he has a notorious reputation, but some how I can’t get upset at his opportunism. Who knows, maybe it is the truth?

2. As others have noted, there was a second suicide. It may even be that after seeing the newspaper and reading about Matsuoka the old boss at J-Green, Shinichi Yamazaki, basically got up, went outside, went to a top floor and threw himself from the building. It’s almost as if he had a secret pack with Matsuoka and knew immediately what to do. Anyway, basically the connection between Matsuoka and J-Green was almost surely through Yamazaki, so any investigation into this matter would be greatly hampered. If there was to be an investigation. That is, J-green is being investigated already, but so far Abe has not expressed any desire to investigate Matsuoka.

3. The morbid details of Matsuoka’s final 72 hours are being examined by the media very carefully. This is reaching the point of bizarreness. I saw an interview with his barber. His barber commented on how he hadn’t been his usual self, but quite down. Another long time acquaintance said he’d been smoking, which is something he’d never seen him do. Let’s get less of these details and get some more investigative reporting. Please.

4. No one has condemned the suicide as a suicide per se. I did see some people who knew Matsuoka expressing the feeling that it was a waste for him to have committed suicide. One person close to him said it was stupid. Yet the most common complaint I hear is that he didn’t leave behind a comprehensive note explaining the suicide. It’s as if many people want to say, you want to kill yourself fine, but you really need to leave behind a full explanation if your going to do that. Sigh.

5. I honestly think given the various problem Abe is having now, that so long as the DPJ maintains an even keel they have a real shot at actually taking a majority in the upper house, bringing down the current government, forcing an early election in the lower house and taking control. Abe is so messing up right now, the DPJ would have to be real losers not to be able to take advantage of all this. Especially with Ozawa already making in roads in the rural areas. We’ll see.

6. You can read an entire book about Matsuoka’s rather typical political corruptness. The book can be downloaded for free here. I’ve only read the beginning but it’s pretty fascinating. What a wild look into Japanese politics. Well worth a look. Japan Observer discusses the book here.

Links on this story from today:

• 2007/05/30 Legislator Muneo Suzuki says Matsuoka was told by LDP to keep silent about scam; Mainichi Shimbun; The headlines speaks for itself. True or not this story is getting a lot of attention.
• 2007/05/30 LDP ordered Matsuoka to keep silent: Suzuki, The Japan Times; Basically same story as the above article.
• 2007/05/30 Matsuoka ‘isolated’ over allegations / Tough-talking Cabinet minister’s suicide took everybody by surprise, Kohei Kawashima and Atsushi Yoshihara,The Yomiuri Shimbun; Fairly uncontroversial report of general facts surrounding suicide.
• 2007/05/30 EDITORIAL: Suicide that conceals facts, The Japan Times; “The suicide of farm minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka amid political funds scandals is both shocking and sad. It is regrettable that he chose to kill himself rather than sincerely answer questions over the suspicions surrounding him. Mr. Matsuoka’s suicide should come as a political blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who continued to defend him by saying that he had fulfilled his responsibility under the Political Funds Control Law.”
• 2007/05/30 POLITICAL PULSE / Cabinet support rate uncertain, Tadayuki Tamai, The Daily Yomiuri. Describes current situation without speculating much. Yawn.
• 2007/05/30 Ex-executive of J-Green predecessor ‘kills self’, The Yomiuri Shimbun; “A former executive of the predecessor of the scandal-tainted Japan Green Resources Agency (J-Green) apparently committed suicide early Tuesday morning in Yokohama, police said. According to sources, Shinichi Yamazaki, a former executive director of the Japan Forest Development Corporation, established the alleged J-Green bid-rigging system around 1990 while he was still executive director. He was the boss of Muneo Takagi, a former J-Green executive director arrested on suspicion of bid-rigging. Yamazaki’s death came just a day after the suicide of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who reportedly had received donations from firms that had won contracts for orders issued by J-Green.”
• 2007/05/30 If Abe cannot clear up politics, voters will, Hiroshi Hoshi, The Asahi Shimbun; Nice editorial as it rakes Abe across the coals. However, it doesn’t make any daring speculations.
• 2007/05/30 EDITORIAL: Matsuoka’s suicide, The Asahi Shimbun; “We cannot tell for sure whether and how the allegations related to the scandal affected Matsuoka’s decision to kill himself. If they had anything to do with his tragic death, why didn’t he reveal the truth and admit his wrongdoings, if any, to make a fresh start? We don’t want to speak ill of a dead person, but we must say that would have been the only right way for him to take responsibility for the affair. … Even after Matsuoka became embroiled in the scandals, Abe kept defending the farm minister. Since the revelations about Matsuoka’s questionable office expenses came just a few weeks after Genichiro Sata, former minister of administrative reform, resigned over inappropriate accounting practices, Abe may have feared that another sacking of a minister would cause too much political damage to his administration.”
• 2007/05/30 Minister’s suicide evokes Japan’s shady politics, Linda Sieg, Reuters; Cites three different pundits as saying Abe’s in trouble, not doing well, etc.
• 2007/05/30 Panel Recommends Curtailing Scandal-Plagued Japan Green Agency , Sachiko Sakamaki and Takashi Hirokawa, Bloomberg; “Matsuoka was to be questioned in parliament about allegations that two of his campaign offices received 13 million yen ($107,000) in donations from 14 contractors that worked for J-Green, Kyodo News said on May 28. Executives from four of the contractors were also arrested on May 24 along with the J-Green executives.”
• 2007/05/30 Suicides Cast Shadow On Japan’s Government, Shu-Ching Jean Che, Forbes; “Matsuoka’s death is likely to further delay Japan’s negotiations in the Doha round of farm liberalization talks under the World Trade Organization, as well as its efforts to ink bilateral economic pacts with countries such as Australia, for which agriculture is a key issue. It could also complicate American efforts to get Japan to lift restrictions on beef imports from the U.S. The scandal makes Abe’s political future appear increasingly tenuous. His approval rating has fallen to the mid-30s and upper house elections loom this July. If public disenchantment with the ruling LDP leads to losses at the polls, he is likely to be held accountable by his party.”
• 2007/05/30 Reports: Minister said ‘banzai’ to Japan and Abe in suicide note, The Associated Press; The main thrust of this article seems to be given in its headline.
• 2007/05/30 Japan sets suicide reduction as an urgent task, The Associated Press; An article exemplifying just how bad journalism can be.

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Toshikatsu Matsuoka commits suicide.