On Oct. 18, two days after the latest
edition of Shukan Asahi hit the
kiosks with its lurid headline about Osaka Mayor and Ishin-no-Kai JRP head Toru
Hashimoto’s “bloodline”, its chief editor issued an apology and promised that the
next edition would carry an apology in print. Hashimoto and his Ishin-no-Kai are
now gearing up to sue the publisher of Shukan
Bunshun, a conservative weekly a notch above the sextertainment- yakuza fanzines,
for defamation in its latest edition, which went on sale on the 18th. Bunshun most recently scored a hit on
Hashimoto in July with a true confessions story on a night club hostess who had
an affair with him before he became a politician. Its line of attack this time
around is a politically more serious allegation, that Ishin-no-Kai had received
700 million yen in secret donations from Seicho-no-Ie, a conservative neo-religion
founded in 1930. This story will play out over a much longer timeline, but it
will give Hashimoto another opportunity for counterattack, on which he thrives
so well. I realize they’re just trying to sell copies, but they’re doing him a
great favor by drawing attention away from the significant growing pains of his
Japan Restoration Party.
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