Ex-Geisha on Uno Downfall: ‘I Set Out to Get Him’

The former geisha whose tales of infidelity brought down Japan’s prime minister said Friday that she cried tears of happiness when she saw Sosuke Uno announce his planned resignation on nationwide television this week.

“Victory at last,” was Mitsuko Nakanishi’s first reaction when Uno told the nation Monday he would resign. “Tears came running down. I felt like an athlete who just won a game.”

Uno, 66, who served only seven weeks as prime minister, was unable to put to rest Nakanishi’s allegations that he paid her $21,000 for a four-month extramarital affair in 1985. Nakanishi’s story was followed by similar tales from another former geisha and a bar hostess.

“If I had not spoken out, he would still be prime minister today,” Nakanishi, 40, said in her first interview with a foreign correspondent since Uno’s resignation. “I set out to get him and I got him.”

However, she nonetheless denied any feeling of personal vengeance, saying she acted for the sake of Japanese women.

Uno’s fall was a triumph for Japanese women who have “always been beaten down by men and have always quietly endured the pain,” she said.

According to Nakanishi, Uno saw women as merchandise, betrayed his wife, treated older women as useless and constantly bragged about his own power.

Uno has refused to comment on any of the allegations.

When the election came Sunday, female voters turned out in higher numbers than men to help hand Uno’s Liberal Democratic Party its first election defeat in 34 years.