Japan's Worst Political Corruption Scandal

Japan has long struggled with corrupt ties between its politicians and businesses. It is said that they experience one such major scandal every ten years - every time leading to calls for reform.

At the end of the 1980s, Japan experienced one of their most serious such scandals - the Recruit Scandal.

It touched all of Japan’s political, economic, and social elites. Its widespread nature signaled a deeply corrupt system - going all the way up to the Prime Minister himself.

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[ericwebster]

Putting bribe money in a box of chocolates is like comic book villain level crime.

[caneprints]

What is really tragic is that the majority of people in Japan and South Korea work so hard, putting in crazy hours, giving up social life and trying to help themselves and their kids get through a competitive education system, only to have these already wealthy people getting ahead through malfeasance. the idea that hard work alone will lead to prosperity is here by debunked once and for all.

[php]

I don't blame the Japanese middle class and working class to be outraged by this crime. It's as bad as the Enron and City Bank fiasco.

[thebestcentaur]

"Japanese law back then forbade companies from directly recruiting students..."

Times HAVE changed.

[pdsnpsnldlqnop]

"Cleaner than water for the 7nm process node"
I love the retro pics of Japan. Plus how scandals unravel is always instructive!

[NYCZ]

Goes to show that real estate bubbles don’t just happen. You can have all the regulations in the world but when the regulators themselves are compromised, the oversight system becomes useless. Greed is one hell of a motivator

[prestonjones]

As an American, the most surprising part was that politicians were actually punished for being corrupt.

[面堂終太郎]

At 13m38s, you spelled Kiichi Miyazawa's (宮澤喜一) name as "Kimchi Miyazawa". Perhaps you wrote that just after lunch at a Korean restaurant?

[Sanutep]

13:12 "He was very competent and cleaner than the ultrapure water rated for the 7nm process node"

Lmao, very nice. 😆

[seneca]

About the earlier Lockheed scandal, there is a satire game made of it called "I'm Sorry". The name is a pun as "sorry" sounds similar to the Japanese word for prime minister. In the game you play as PM Tanaka and collect stacks of cash.

[casparcoaster]

i was teaching ESL in Tokyo in '89, and lived down in Kanagawa ken, near Mizonokuchi Station... always made it home on the last train from Shibuya... and often folks puked their guts out on the platform on Friday nights, and I remember a dude making a point of folding a newspaper w/ Nakasone on the front page... and saying "Otskure Samadeshta" as he put that page flat in a pile of it, and stepped on it....

[cornerseeker]

Similarities between this scandal and “Tangentopoli” in Italy are staggering and they happened roughly in the same years

[Tsukiyomi]

Would you do a video on the Unification Church? Abe Shinzo's assassination brought out a ton of messy tendrils, stretching across Korea, Japan, and the US. It might need 2, or even 3 videos to give a satisfactory report.

[ErulianADRaghath]

"...cleaner than ultra-pure water rated for the 7nm process node" 🤣🤣🤣

[XSpImmaLion]

Good to see coverage like this... I'm always saying that Japanese government, despite word of mouth around, can be as corrupt as the government of any other nation - but you rarely ever see explainers on specific cases.
Suggestion - the corruption around the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant disaster. That's one I'm always mentioning but never seen a video specifically dedicated to that potion of the event.
Thanks for creating and sharing!

[AllocatorsAsia]

Another banger, and a good related video could be around Kisha clubs?

"There is criticism that press rooms set up for kisha clubs by government agencies, local public bodies and the police are paid for with taxes, but can only be used by the member companies, leading to corruption."

[timmyturner]

Well, this man was pretty effective at recruit-ing politicians to serve his company's cause.

[miroslavhoudek]

Look at all the hard work and lucky breaks that were necessary for this scandal to break wide open. It's so clear that there are tens or hundreds of these schemes running in every government right now, isn't it?

[justincllee]

As a Malaysian the share gain of corruption money 21.3 million dollar are so small, yet share among so many people. not even enough for former first lady rosmah's pink diamand. What a clean country japan is.

[iXPilot]

8:41 "They correctly smelled real trouble and who wants that, right?" - Wow, it's so great! 🤣