Key Japan Cabinet Member Resigns in New Sex Scandal

Yet another sex scandal has rocked the Japanese political world, as a key minister in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu resigned today after he admitted having an extramarital affair with a bar hostess and attempting to pay her $21,000 just before taking office earlier this month.

Tokuo Yamashita, the chief Cabinet secretary and the government’s official spokesman, said he was resigning because it was “appropriate” in advance of Kaifu’s scheduled summit with President Bush next Friday and the administration’s debut later in September in Parliament, where political ethics and reform are expected to be hotly debated.

Kaifu became prime minister Aug. 9, succeeding Sosuke Uno, who was embroiled in a scandal over his alleged amorous liaisons, including a sensational affair with a part-time geisha. That women problem was considered a contributing factor in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s devastating defeat in the election for the upper house of Parliament last month.

“Because of my private matters, I have caused problems for the party and the government and that has been intolerable,” Yamashita, 69, told a news conference this morning.

His resignation came one day after the popular weekly magazine, Shukan Shincho, published a report alleging that Yamashita, who is married, started having an affair with a 21-year-old bar hostess in 1984. It said the relationship was broken off in 1987, but that Yamashita met the woman again this month and offered her $21,000 to buy her silence. The woman, who was not identified, did not accept the money.

Meeting the news media Thursday, Yamashita admitted that the magazine article was basically true but denied he had intended the payment as hush money. He said the affair “was due to my lack of discretion, and I apologize, especially to the public, for causing such trouble right after the Kaifu administration came into office with a slogan of clean politics.”

The incident suggests the rules of the game in Japanese politics may have gone through some irrevocable changes, as women become more active in the political process and the public rejects a long-standing tolerance of adultery among top politicians. To repair some of the damage caused by the Uno scandal, Kaifu appointed two women to his Cabinet.

But the new standard of behavior is not without its detractors. In an editorial today, the conservative Yomiuri newspaper said it “would be extremely regrettable if a scandal of this kind postponed attending to political tasks” while Japan finds itself in a “delicate position” in domestic and international affairs.

“We would like to urge politicians again to exercise discipline and behave properly. At the same time, we deplore the mounting tendency to scour the past of every politician for scandals of this nature. It smacks of a witch hunt,” the Yomiuri said.

Shortly after becoming the third prime minister in three months, Kaifu himself was the subject of a news report in the regional Nagoya Times that he had an affair with an model and fathered an illegitimate daughter. After Kaifu vehemently denied the report, the paper retracted the story and apologized.

Yamashita’s resignation, however, is seen as a serious blow to the legitimacy of the Kaifu Cabinet, which is charged with the task of leading the ruling party out of its worst political crisis in 34 years. Kaifu has rejected the image that he is in a caretaker role and is attempting to muster broad support for the Liberal Democrats before crucial lower house elections by mid-1990.