Just as Monday follows Sunday, another round of corruption scandals has broken out in Japan. This time it is a senior Foreign Ministry official accused of siphoning money from a diplomatic travel fund. Now it is important to remember that these incidents have nothing to do with an actual scandal. They are not isolated events. If we have learned anything in the past decade, it is that anything remotely associated with politicians is tainted.
Politicians wear money like bad perfume and a cheap suit.
With no polling data available, no one has a clue what most Japanese think about these scandals. In a nation obsessed with ritual, scandals provide a way to screw your political opponent. In this case, the knives are out for the bumbling Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. His already weakened party faction inside the ruling LDP faces a critical election later this year. And like the first ray of spring sun on a family of churlish pit vipers, his opponents are beginning to squirm into action.