From: cmr@world.std.com (Charles M Richmond)
Subject: Kanemaru and company.
Organization: Integrated International Systems Corp. One Longfellow Place, Suite 3309, Boston, Ma.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 14:49:11 GMT


	TOKYO (UPI) -- The ruling party acquiesced Thursday to opposition
demands that both disgraced political kingmaker Shin Kamemaru and former
Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita testify before lawmakers over their
roles in a political payoff scandal.
	With time running out Dec. 8 in the extraordinary session of
Parliament, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leaders dropped their
previous objections to hospital bedside testimony from Kanemaru, who
underwent surgery Tuesday for glaucoma of his right eye.
	The dispute over who should be summoned to Parliament to provide
sworn testimony has stalled the convening of the House of
Representatives Budget Committee, responsible for passing a
supplementary budget considered essential to shore up the sluggish
economy.
	Senior members of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the largest
opposition group, said they favored the start of budget deliberations
with the LDP agreeing to testimony from former party vice president
Kanemaru.
	While the LDP agreed earlier to Takeshita's testimony, the party
objected to the questioning of Kanemaru, who resigned from the House and
gave up his position as chairman of the LDP's most powerful faction last
month to atone for accepting a $4 million illegal contribution from
Tokyo Sagawa Kyubin, a now defunct trucking firm.
	Kanemaru's surgery sparked strong criticism from opposition parties
that his sudden hospitalization at Odawara Municipal Hospital was an
attempt to avoid humiliating testimony at Parliament.
	The 78-year-old Kanemaru will have surgery on his right eye next week
and will be hospitalized for two to three weeks, doctors said.
	Opposition party leaders said they suggested questioning Kanemaru at
his bedside as a compromise to break the impasse over the budget.
	The opposition camp refused to discuss the budget without the
testimony of the LDP politicians.
	Kanemaru is alleged to have asked Susumu Ishii, the late head of the
second largest crime syndicate, to help stop a rightist group's
harassment of Takeshita in 1987 when Takeshita was seeking the LDP
presidency and premiership.
	Kanemaru's departure as the faction leader has sparked such a fierce
leadership battle the Kyodo News Service said Thursday the breakup of
the 109-member group has become inevitable. There are four other
factions in the LDP.
	Supporters of Finance Minister Tsutomu Hata have refused to recognize
former LDP Secretary General Keizo Obuchi as leader of the faction
founded by Takeshita.
	The rival groups held separate meetings in the squabble, with
political analysts viewing the sessions as a decisive indication that
the most powerful faction will split into two.
	Until Thursday the two groups had stuck to a tacit understanding to
exercise restraint over their differences while Parliament was in
session.

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*  Charles Richmond 	Integrated International Systems Corporation        *
*  cmr@world.std.com	(Temporary) cmr@koneko.shr.dec.com		    *
*  Specializing in UNIX, X, Image Processing, and Communications.           *