Out One Door, And In The Other

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By Newsweek Editors

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Imagine an American president filling his cabinet with such political exiles as Richard Nixon, Gary Hart, James Watt and New Jersey's convicted Abscam bribetaker, Sen. Harrison A. Williams Jr. Never happen? It can in Japan, where political purgatory comes equipped with a revolving door. To placate rival factions in his ruling Liberal Democratic Party, the newly elected prime minister, 72-year-old party godfather Kiichi Miyazawa, has assigned important positions to LDP pols who resigned or were eased out for alleged ethical indiscretions in the past. Among them are Yoshiro Mori, one of the recipients of Recruit Co. stock in the securities-for-influence scandal that shook Japan in 1988, and Koko Sato, convicted of taking a bribe from Lockheed Corp. in 1976.

Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe opined three years ago that the United States has a personal debt problem because black Americans "overuse their credit cards and don't care if they go bankrupt." Tokuo Yamashita is back, too: in 1989 he had to quit his cabinet job after two weeks when an extramarital affair was revealed. Yet LDP pols insist the new cabinet lineup signals the end of the scandals, not their perpetuation. According to the circular norms of Japanese politics, you remove the effects of a scandal by naming ministers who were allegedly part of it; their re-election to the Diet in February was a ritual purge.

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