Friday, March 06, 2009

Ichiro Ozawa’s LDP Challenger Allegedly Worked Out Nishimatsu Construction Money Scheme

There’s so much going on around the Nishimatsu Construction case but I still can’t imagine anything happening between now and the almost inevitable indictment of Ichiro Ozawa’s aide-de-camp that will change the minds of anyone that matters regarding Ozawa’s fate and its impact on the political scene. However, in the strangest of plot twists, the ex-secretary that set up the arrangement between the Ozawa camp and Nishimatsu Construction appears to be Yoshinobu Takahashi, current head of the local LDP chapter in Iwate Prefecture, Fourth District, poised to run against Ozawa in the upcoming Lower House election. Takahashi was Ozawa’s right-hand man for many years and even served as a Lower House member for the DPJ in 2000-2003, but defected to the LDP in 2004.

It’s weird, and I don’t know what to make of it, except to see it as proof that you never know what’s going to pop up as the investigation unfolds.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know Takahashi. There was quite a bit of press about it at the time, but he and Ozawa had a serious falling out some years ago. Neither has divulged the reason for this, however, and Takahashi has said in the press that he intends to take the details of what happened with him "to the grave."

Jun Okumura said...

Maybe that's why the mainstream media have been tiptoeing around the guy's name; he's not talking? I'm surprised they haven't been going after him, but that may be the reason. After all, there is no statute of limitations against reporting on the roots of the scandal.

Anonymous said...

Much mystery surrounds the Takahashi-Ozawa falling out. I find it hard to believe that some of the local Iwate journalists of the dailies, at a minimum, aren't aware of what occurred. Depending on how this thing develops, however, it could become important. i.e. does Takahashi dislike Ozawa so much that he's prepared to try and end his career?

Jun Okumura said...

He'll be destroying his own political career too, which he is probably loathe to do.