Skeletons In The Closet

One of reasons why Maehara Seiji's run for the post of leader of the Democratic Party of Japan ran out of gas was a purported fear among party members that a Maehara administration would get bogged down at the outset over donations made to Maehara's political fundraising group by Japan permanent residents with South Korean citizenship. Rather than have the party go through the hell of the Liberal Democratic Party pestering the prime minister with questions about these donations, the better bet was to install the squeaky clean Noda Yoshihiko as the party's leader.

Well, guess what:

Noda got donations of foreign cash
Yomiuri Online

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda received a total of about 160,000 yen in political donations from a South Korean resident in Japan from 2001 to 2003, it was learned Saturday.

The Political Funds Control Law bans political donations by foreign nationals, but the three-year statute of limitations has run out on the donations to Noda.

According to a political funding report, Noda's political funds-management organization--Mirai Kurabu--received 158,000 yen from a man who operates a real estate business in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture.

The man acknowledged during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun he was a South Korean resident in Japan and made donations to Noda.

He said he has been serving as an executive of a chapter of the Korean Residents Union in Japan since before he made the donations.

"Mr. Noda should've known I was a foreign national," he said. "But maybe he didn't notice I made the donations." The man made the donations under a Japanese name...

Yes, of course it is a set-up. The final quote makes it brazenly clear.

Staffers at the Noda office claim they knew nothing about the background of the donor, which is very likely true.

I am sure that the LDP, having suddenly ceded the top spot to the DPJ in the party support polls, this according to this morning's Kyodo Poll (ja), will certainly not waste precious Diet Budget Committee time questioning Prime Minister Noda on this matter.

Uh-huh.