Monday, Dec. 09, 1974

Toppling Tanaka

A few weeks after Richard Nixon resigned last August, the editors of Bungei-Shunju, a respected Tokyo-based monthly, decided to do a little Watergate-style digging into the shady financial dealings of their own chief executive. Largely as a result of those excavations, Premier Kakuei Tanaka was forced last week to resign.

Bungei-Shunju's feat would have been a coup in any country. But in Japan, where the press seldom mentions the private peccadillos of government leaders, it was an unprecedented display of hara (guts). The nation's last major political scandal, the 1966 "black mist" influence-peddling affair, went unreported in the press until the matter came before the Diet. This time, Bungei-Shunju 's disclosures were ignored for nearly a fortnight. It was only when foreign reporters grilled Tanaka about the article that big Japanese dailies began to print disapproving editorials. Since then, not one publication has pursued any of the leads turned up by Bungei-Shunju.

Why such docility? For one thing, Japanese journalists have a tradition of pleasant bonhomie with their news sources that makes hard digging difficult. Then there are the reporters' clubs, which are organized around the foreign ministry and other official news beats and can bar an aggressive reporter from press conferences. Beyond that, many major news organizations are in debt to banks that have close ties to the Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan since 1955. A number of Tokyo dailies have also built their offices on government land relinquished to them through important politicians.

Hot Stuff. Bungei-Shunju is an unlikely rebel against this system. Founded in 1923 by a now deceased novelist, it is predictable, patriotic, and conservative. The cover of its November issue, on which the explosive 61-page "An Anatomy of Kakuei Tanaka, His Money and His Men" is noted in small type, shows five placid pigeons pecking away amid fallen autumn leaves. Bungei-Shunju's 700,000 readers typically buy the magazine for its reportage, fiction and travel articles. Bungei-Shunju has only ten editorial staffers, and major pieces are written by freelancers.

One regular contributor, Takashi Tachibana, 34, who has written widely on the Middle East, was commissioned by Bungei-Shunju editors last August to check out rumors that Premier Tanaka had spent huge personal sums to win last July's parliamentary election; the editors could not figure out where Tanaka got all the money. Tachibana was given a staff of 20 to help on the project. Little of what they uncovered was entirely new, but Tachibana's raiders were able to make some intriguing juxtapositions--like Tanaka's ability to accumulate some $10 million worth of homes and villas while a public servant.

The team encountered no political interference. Says Tachibana: "We went to tax offices and census registration bureaus, bowed to the officials, paid a modest fee for copying and came back with a treasure-house of information."

Since the treasure appeared in print, Tachibana has been lionized by interviewers, Bungei-Shunju's circulation has jumped 10%, and collectors are now paying up to $60 for a copy of the historic November issue (actual price: $1.16). Yet only one newspaper, the Communist Party organ Akahata (Red Flag), has since formed an investigative team, and many Japanese doubt that their discreet press will ever develop an appetite for muckraking. Even so, Bungei-Shunju will remain a goad to the complaisant. The magazine's January issue, due on the newsstands next week, contains further disclosures about Tanaka. Managing Editor Kengo Tanaka (no kin) will not elaborate, but promises: "There's some hot stuff in it."

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