Prime Minister Naoto Kan is an enigmatic man. Mrs. Sakie Yokota, mother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korean agents in 1977 at the tender age of 13, first met Kan last June to appeal for his efforts to secure her daughter’s release. She says the prime minister gave her the impression that he must “somehow be connected with ‘some place in deep darkness.’” By this, Mrs. Yokota means “an equally enigmatic place like North Korea.”

　　　Thirty-four long and agonizing years after her daughter’s abduction to North Korea, Sakie’s facial expressions are surprisingly gentle, although a closer look reveals they are lined with a deep sense of grief.

　　　“In June last year, shortly after Mr. Kan became prime minister, I was given a chance to call on him at his official residence as one of the representatives of the families of the abductees,” recalls Sakie. “There, we were met by four top government leaders, including the prime minister, Mr. Yoshito Sengoku, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Mr. Hiroshi Nakai, minister in charge of the abduction issue. However, that occasion turned out to be extremely disappointing to us, because Mr. Kan dealt with us in a truly perfunctory manner, saying nothing that touched our hearts. I felt that the anxieties and misgivings we had felt about him prior to the meeting had sadly come true.”

　　　Asked what she meant by “anxieties,” Sakie quickly replied:“They primarily had to do with Shin Gwang-soo.”

　　　Shin, a big name agent worshipped as a national hero in North Korea today, masterminded the abduction in 1980 of Tadaaki Hara, then a 43-year-old cook in Osaka. Shin was arrested in 1985 after smuggling himself into South Korea on a subversive mission, and sentenced to death. In 1989, however, left-leaning Japanese politicians including Kan, who subsequently became prime minister in June 2010, and Keiko Chiba, who went on to serve as Justice Minister under two DPJ administrations between September 2009 and September 2010 (she lost the Upper House election in July 2010), signed a written petition appealing for Shin’s early release.

　　　Both Kan and Chiba later tried to vindicate themselves by claiming they had no idea that Shin had been involved in the abduction of Japanese nationals. However, when the government of a nation -€ South Korea in this case -€ imposes the death sentence on a criminal through due process of law, politicians of other nations, including Japan of course, should not lightly appeal for the condemned criminal’s release. Such an appeal must constitute a serious political commitment reflecting the intense feelings and unshakeable convictions of the politicians involved, regarding the specific circumstances under which the criminal committed the crime.

　　　However, when the press revealed that Kan and Chiba were among a total of 133 left-wing Japanese members of the diet who had petitioned South Korean President Roh Tae-woo, the two refused to assume any responsibility, together claiming -€ as if by common consent -€ they knew nothing about Shin’s background. Such an excuse is totally unacceptable. If they really did not know, their incompetence has been laid bare. On the other hand, if they made the appeal without any knowledge of the background involved, then their action must definitely constitute a blatant act of disloyalty to Japan and its people. Any such politician is automatically ill qualified to be prime minister or justice minister.

Strange Flow of Political Funds

　　　It is only natural to have misgivings about the prime minister’s integrity over his having once appealed for the release of a notorious North Korean operative. Sakie Yokota says she had voiced her apprehension in a conversation with the then Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, now Secretary-General of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), prior to the meeting with Kan. She says Okada promised to make sure to relay her concern to Kan.

　　　“We were received by Prime Minister Kan following our meeting with Mr. Okada,” recalls Sakie. “Although the prime minister said he would do his best (in securing the release of the abductees), he actually did not talk much, and, frankly, he struck me as a very evasive person. I felt uneasy about whether he would really make an all-out effort to bring the abductees, including our daughter, back to Japan as he half-heartedly said he would.”

　　　Not only has Mr. Kan most perplexingly given support to this North Korean spy, he has also received illegal political contributions from a South Korean resident in Japan. The Japanese Political Fund Control Law prohibits politicians from receiving contributions from foreign nationals. Any violator is subject to up to three years of imprisonment, or a fine of up to 500,000 (US$ 6,259). On the morning of last March 11, the day of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Kan was on the verge of tendering his resignation as prime minister, as it had recently been disclosed that he had received political contributions in 2006 and 2009 from a male South Korean resident in Japan, totaling 1,040,000 (US$13,000). That afternoon, the quake and tsunami changed the whole picture.

　　　Explains Professor Tomoaki Iwai of the Law Department of Nihon University:

　　　“I don’t think there are many political contributors in Japan who readily donate to the tune of 1,000,000 (US$12,500) or more. In that sense, Mr. Kan’s case clearly differs from that of former Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, who was forced to resign for accepting 50,000 (US$625) from a female South Korean resident in his constituency who happened to be an old family friend. The important question here is, just what is the specific relationship between Mr. Kan and the illegal contributor? Kan clearly owes the nation an explanation.”

　　　But the prime minister has refused to explain. Not only that. On March14, amid the uproar that engulfed the nation immediately following the unprecedented natural calamity and the reactor accidents at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Complex, Kan secretly reimbursed the contributor the full amount which had been donated. The prime minister, driven into a corner just short of resignation, came back to life thanks to the colossal disaster, pledging to the nation he would risk his life to rebuild and rehabilitate Japan. Obviously, he had hoped his contribution scandal would soon be forgotten amid the chaos now that he had returned the money, and he decided to hold his tongue and affect ignorance.

　　　However, after charges were filed against Kan with the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office, its special investigation section agreed to launch a probe into the case on May 10. The Kan administration is forging ahead with a scheme to try and implement a legal reform aimed at weakening the power of the special investigation section, but the prime minister should never underestimate the watchful eyes of the nation and the judiciary.

　　　In addition to receiving political funds that he cannot account for before the nation, the prime minister has also made questionable contributions to a dubious leftwing political organization that the public will have a hard time approving. To be specific, the Soshi-kai, Kan’s political fund managing body, has made political contributions totaling 62,500,000 (approximately US$ 780,000) to the “Citizens’ Association for a Change of Administration” (hereafter, “the Citizens’ Association”), according to a scoop the Sankei Shimbun got on July 2. Kan himself admitted it, but defended it by claiming the contributions were made “as part of my responsibility as an officer of my party (acting representative of the DPJ) at the time” and stressing the contributions “were made strictly under the rule of law.”

　　　The fact that Kan’s political fund managing body has enough cash to make such sizeable donations to another political group is itself surprising. However, what must be viewed with even keener interest is the vastly different nature of the organization in question from Kan’s fund managing body. Explains Prof. Iwai:

　　　“It is commonplace for politicians in Japan to make donations within the frame work of one political family -€ usually through the parent organization to several sub organizations as a means of helping them financially. I have seldom seen a case like Mr. Kan’s, in which political funds have been channeled into an outside political organization that seemingly is not directly linked with his body. In view of the prevailing accepted practices in Japanese politics, it certainly is a puzzling flow of funds.”

Timing for Kan’s Retirement: the Sooner, the Better

　　　Generally speaking, political funds are manipulated by politicians for their own election campaigns, or to train and nurture junior politicians in their own camps. Prof. Iwai emphasizes he has never heard of a political donation -€ 62.5 million no less -€ made to a political organization with no apparent direct affiliation. To offer so large a sum to the “Citizens’ Association,” however, the prime minister must have fully recognized what the body is all about. Actually, what kind of an organization is it? The facts, as reported by the Sankei Shimbun, are appalling.

　　　The “Citizens’ Association” is a splinter organization of the left-wing Citizen Party, notorious for its radicalism. On May 29, 2002, for instance, two of its female members -€ Sakura Inouye and Hiroko Yonahara who served as members of the municipal assembly of Yokohama City -€ made headlines by attempting to pull down the Japanese national flag hoisted in the main conference hall of the assembly. The two women tussled with city assembly staff before being subdued. On June 5, just a week after the incident, the same two assembly women occupied the seats of the assembly chair and the secretary general, filibustering for nearly six hours to interrupt the plenary session. Inouye and Nonahara were later expelled from the assembly, receiving the toughest punishment under the local autonomy law.

　　　Last April, the Citizen Party made yet another baffling move. It backed the son of the late leader of the Japanese Red Army, Takamaro Tamiya, and his wife Junko Mori, in a successful bid to elect him to the municipal assembly of Mitaka City, a suburb of Tokyo. Tamiya had led a group of Japanese Red Army members in the 1970 hijack of a Japan Air Lines passenger plane, an incident popularly known in Japan as the “Yodo-go Hijacking.” Mori is on the wanted list of Interpol for abducting two Japanese nationals, Toru Ishioka and Kaoru Matsuki, from Europe to North Korea in 1980.

　　　“There certainly appears to be nothing illicit about the donations made by Mr. Kan’s group to the Citizens’ Association,” notes Prof. Iwai. “However, he will surely be held accountable for the donation and needs to explain why this large sum of 62.5 million has been donated to this specific political organization. It is precisely because Mr. Kan was in a position to have thoroughly reviewed and understood these matters -€ the type of individuals involved with this body, which members are active in politics, and what those politicians are doing at this stage -€ that such an explanation will be expected.”

　　　With a record of such questionable actions having accumulated -€ the petition for an early release of an infamous North Korean agent, the illegal acceptance of political contributions from a South Korean residing in Japan, and the contribution of a huge sum to a dubious political organization -€ the doubts surrounding Prime Minister Kan have become all the more overwhelming. Unfortunately, this failed political leader no longer has the confidence of the nation. Politics cannot function in the void of public confidence. With his credibility having been so seriously impaired, I am afraid Japan is left with a prime minister no longer capable of resolving any of the big challenges the nation faces, beginning with the abduction issue.

　　　It is, therefore, crucial for Mr. Kan to step down as soon as possible. The sooner, the better.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 469 in the July 21, 2011 issue of The Weekly Shincho.)