Shadow shoguns

by Jacob M. Schlesinger

Japan's formidable political machine - Tokyo's version of Tammany Hall - was founded in the 1970s by Kakuei Tanaka, a rough-hewn, fiery populist whose storybook rise from impoverished "snow country" roots to prime minister made him a beloved leader. After a string of financial scandals, including his arrest for taking bribes, led to his banishment from high office, Tanaka managed to acquire even greater power as Japan's acknowledged "shadow shogun" by building a broad-based political organization that squelched open democratic competition and co-opted rival politicians. Run by a dynasty of corrupt backroom fixers who handpicked prime ministers and treated them as personal puppets, Tanaka's machine became a main pillar of "Japan Inc.," the tight clique of political, bureaucratic, and business leaders that was both admired and feared around the world. The machine was a product - and a fitting emblem - of its time, when Japan's new democracy was still immature and the whole nation seemed