Ozawa Ichiro, Japan"shadow shogun" : a stone for your shoe!

Damaged by alleged money politics scandal, Ozawa's expertise in

campaigning for Hatoyama overestimated or is the powerful man

playing new tricks in tune with Japan's Nagatacho bad habits?

"I have no intention of resigning from the post of secretary

general by being put through such things," he told reporters

after attending the party's annual convention held in Tokyo.

Here is a sample of Japanese televisions hunting for Ozawa on

Tokyo DPJ annual convention day.

Ichiro Ozawa, the powerful politician, secretary general of the

ruling Democratic Party of Japan, says he will keep his post

despite the arrests of three aides in connection with a shady

land purchase, while directing his anger at investigative

authorities. Does the Tokyo Prosecutor think so too?

This afternoon, Tokyo town center was the theater of massive

demonstration around Kasumigaseki and Hibiya Park, "haut-lieu" of

the Japanese administration. On the same day, the DPJ held its

national convention. Ozawa, a one-time protege of Kakuei Tanaka,

known for Japan's modern pork-barrel politics and the Lockheed

scandal, was a rising star in the LDP until 1993, when he divided

with dozens of other lawmakers. Using the campaigning skills he

practiced in the LDP, he has since worked to create a viable rival

party to the LDP.

Ozawa, 67-years old, the political kingpin who is believed to

have been the architect behind prime minister Hatoyama and the

party's landslide victory in the House of Representatives

election last August, renewed his determination to lead DPJ to

another victory in the House of Councillors race set to take

place this summer.

"I have no intention of resigning from the post of secretary

general by being put through such things," he told reporters

after attending the party's annual convention held in Tokyo.

He reiterated that no dubious money was involved in the land

purchase in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward as prosecutors suspect and he

added that he has fully explained this to them: "I don't know if

they did it intentionally, but the arrests took place in step

with our party's convention, and I cannot by any means accept

such a way (of investigation)," he said. "If this way is

accepted, it would cast a shadow over the nation's democracy."

No media strategy from the current government

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters,

"The secretary general has told me that he has no intention of

resigning, so I told him that I trust him and would like him to

continue to stay on." Hatoyama, 62, who also doubles as DPJ

president, held talks with Ozawa at the prime minister's office

Saturday morning. But he also said, "It is extremely regrettable

that the case has caused inconvenience to people," referring to

Friday's arrest of Tomohiro Ishikawa, a DPJ lawmaker in

connection with the land purchase in Tokyo by Ozawa's fund

management body involving an unregistered 400 million yen.

Ishikawa formerly worked as a privately hired secretary for Ozawa

and was in charge of clerical work at the fund management body

Rikuzankai.

At the DPJ's annual convention, Ozawa also indicated that he may

have Acting Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi take over part of

his job on an increasing number of occasions in the months to

come, suggesting that he wants to devote more time to his fight

with the authorities to clear his name. Meanwhile, Hatoyama

reiterated his hopes that Ozawa would prove his innocence and do

his best to perform his duty as secretary general, while urging

the party members to help run the government for the next four

years on a united front. The premier also said the party will

seek to secure a majority in the upcoming election.

In addition to Ishikawa, Mitsutomo Ikeda, who also worked for

Ozawa as a privately hired secretary, and Takanori Okubo, an

incumbent state- funded secretary of Ozawa, were arrested in

connection with the case over two days from Friday night. The

arrests of Ozawa's three close aides are expected to deliver a

heavy blow to the government of Hatoyama, who has been under fire

over a funding scandal of his own. The opposition camp is set to

step up its attack against both Hatoyama and Ozawa in an ordinary

Diet session slated to convene Monday. At the convention,

Hatoyama also offered a renewed apology to the public over his

own funding scandal.

Ozawa, a man of too much influence on Hatoyama?

Ozawa's presence has hurt Hatoyama's image, with public support

for the leader now about 50 percent, down from initial highs

above 70 percent due to a perceived lack of leadership. While

some analysts say speculation about Ozawa's influence over policy

is exaggerated, Japanese media have been rife with reports that

Hatoyama has been catering to Ozawa's demands on matters from

personnel to the budget for the next fiscal year.

Ozawa and his image as a back-room wheeler dealer could also hurt

the Democrats' popularity with voters who have pinned hopes on

the party to make policy formation more efficient and

transparent. Ozawa's clout has raised concern about a rival

power centre to the cabinet, that would undermine a Democratic

pledge to centralize decisions in the cabinet. Media have

portrayed Ozawa as the man behind the throne, with TV programs

repeatedly showing lobby groups ranging from labour unions to

nutritionists heading into Ozawa's office for meetings.

Japan US relation damaged by Ozawa and Hatoyama

The review of Japan USA Alliance, the difficulties in adopting

the plan elaborated about the relocation of the Futenma base,

added chili on the top of a not very attractive position of the

two countries while China uses a higher hand to assert her

influence in Asia.

Still Mr Ozawa might have provoked Washington and Beijing with

full knowledge and tension strategy. A strategy that the shadow

shogun now has to defuse if he wants to save his political scalp

and the ruling party.

Memory please

Looking back at Mr Ozawa's spicy statements, Japan getting the

bomb!

April 6 2002, the then leader of Japan's opposition Liberal

Party, Ichiro Ozawa, said it would be a simple matter for Japan

to produce nuclear weapons and surpass the military might of

China if its neighbor got "too inflated." Inviting a sharp

response from Beijing, which is sensitive to any signs of

militarism in Japan, Ozawa told a seminar in the southern city of

Fukuoka that "China is applying itself to expansion of military

power." Ozawa's latest comments came while Japanese Prime

Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited China and when Li Peng,

chairman of China's parliament, was in Japan on a week-long

visit.

Japan has the technology and the plutonium to make thousands of

nuclear weapons, one of the country's most influential

politicians declared this weekend in comments that are likely to

stir up the ire of both China and survivors of the wartime atomic

bombings.

Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the opposition Liberal party, made

the comments against a backdrop of increasing Japanese concern

about the economic and military rise of its Asian neighbor.

"China is applying itself to expand its military power in the

hope of becoming a superpower," he said. "If China gets too

inflated, the Japanese people will get hysterical."

April 7th 2002 Ozawa said at a press conference in Naha,

Okinawa's prefectural capital, ''I told a deputy chief of staff

of China's People's Liberation Army that Japan could become a

nuclear power with its technology and economic might but that it

would be tragic if such a thing occurs and we must not let it

happen.'' He said the Chinese military officer told him China's

nuclear armament and buildup of military forces is for

self-defense. ''That's why I told him that such a view could

apply to any nation including Japan and prompt some Japanese to

insist on a further buildup for self-defense and nuclear

armament,'' he said. ''You may well be surprised, but I'm

against nuclear armament. There's nothing beneficial to Japan

politically,'' Ozawa told reporters.

April 9th 2002 The Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute

(NCI) said Ozawa's statement that Japan could easily produce

nuclear warheads using plutonium recovered from spent fuel from

its commercial nuclear power reactors is technically accurate.

"Ozawa's nuclear threat would be an extraordinary dangerous

policy for Japan, abandoning Japanese rejection of nuclear

weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and it could

destabilize all of Northeast Asia," Edwin Lyman, an NCI

scientific director who is soon to be its president, said in a

statement."

"A Japanese nuclear bomb is no longer unthinkable, Ozawa isn't a

flame-thrower by nature. He's a pretty serious thinker about the

future of Japan, the Washington-based Nuclear Control Institute

wrote. "His 1994 political manifesto, Blueprint For A New Japan,

called for a more proactive foreign policy that would enable

Japan to break out of its post-war passivity. This was bold

stuff at the time. Even the CIA thought it worthy of translation

before the English version was published. And foreign-policy

bigwigs such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger sang

its praises."

"The Japanese Establishment has always been loath to openly

question its post-war pacifism, enshrined in the country's

war-renouncing constitution... Japanese leaders and the public

at large are increasingly cognizant that they live in a far more

dangerous world than that of the last decade. China is an

ascendant power in the region, and its motives on the military

front aren't entirely clear... Already, Japan has a formidable

navy and a defense budget of about $37 billion. It's investing

in spy satellites and has the kind of high-tech finesse to

jointly research missile-defense systems with the U.S. It surely

has the capability of defending itself fully, should it chose to

follow that route..."

"...If Japan beefs up its security, it would probably become much

harder for Tokyo to justify having 45,000-odd American troops

based on Japanese soil. The hassles of hosting such a contingent

of soldiers and equipment make the U.S. presence highly

unpopular with the Japanese public, especially after a string of

criminal allegations against U.S. soldiers involving local

civilians. A stronger Japan would also likely oblige the

Pentagon to find other bases, perhaps fall back to Guam, for its

forward deployment in Asia. Will the day come when Japan decides

to join the nuclear club? That would be a historic step for a

nation that suffered two nuclear attacks from the U.S. during

World War II."

Yesterday China, today the USA...

Playing with symbols and people confidence might get Ozawa the

kingpin to do a symbolic "Seppuku" (stomach cutting in ritual

suicide of the Samurais) if things get even sourer, and it

could...Ozawa, a man with constant policy, it does not make the

LDP and the rightist happy. Japan in spite of the economic

miracle we see in Asia after the Great Recession of 2009 still

lives in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood, and confronting

that reality is far healthier than ignoring it. A reality that

has a political price and everyone opposing the Shadow shogun is

ready to make him pay the price and... no debt allowed!

Sources (agencies, ann tv, blogs, reporter notes)