Chino, Japan, May 21, 2020—Hiromu Kurokawa, a top prosecutor widely viewed as Shinzo Abe’s protege who is believed to be asked by the Japanese prime minister to exonerate a beleaguered lawmaker couple facing possible arrest, May 21 tendered his resignation to the prime minister admitting that he had played mahjong money gambling games with three journalists, a blatant violation of ethics for the Japanese criminal justice system. It’s another big political setback for Abe who wants to serve another term and amend the pacifist constitution. The incident also has sparked doubts about Japanese journalism integrity and independence of reporters, and arguments that ‘kisha (press) clubs annexed to the prime minister’s office and government administrative offices are hotbeds of collusion and information rigging.
Kurokawa, the Tokyo Regional Public Prosecutors Office inspector general, played mahjong games on May 1 and 13 at a condominium of a reporter of Sankei Newspaper with the reporter, as well as another Sankei reporter and an Asahi Shimbun reporter, Japanese media reported. The Japanese government was to formally announce his resignation and successor May 21 evening. Kurokawa, 63, was given a half a year extension of his retirement beyond the mandatory retirement when reaching 63. He turned 63 in February 2020 but was given a half a year extension by cabinet order in January 2020. Abe wanted Kurokawa to succeed the current prosecutor-general when his tenure runs its course in August 2020 right after Kurokawa’s half-year extension expires. It’s because Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet secretary, reportedly wanted Kurokawa to consider exonerating a former justice minister and his wife who illegally paid more than legal limits to election campaign support staff. Prosecutors have been swooping over the couple the past few months, arresting his aide and questioning a local mayor and others.
Asahi released a statement confirming that a Tokyo office employee in his 50s of age played mahjong with Kurokawa and that the company was investigating whether the parties concerned were betting money. It said the employee formerly worked in the Tokyo editorial bureau and had acquainted with Kurokawa over news coverage work and continued associating with Kurokawa over meals during his off-duty days and hours. Sankei declined to comment beyond what was reported by the weekly Shukan Bunshun.
A senior Sankei editorial staffer told The Prospect that one of the two Sankei reporters who played mahjong with Kurokawa ‘invited Kurokawa to his posh (Tokyo) riverside condo.’ Kurokawa asked the reporter and called other guys to join the mahjong games, he said. Kurokawa’s favorite pass-time is playing money gambling mahjong and walking his dog. That he played money-betting games itself was illegal under Japanese law but the staffer told me that more serious was that he prodded the three reporters to join him while Japan was in coronavirus lockdown situation.
The incident is clear proof of the bureaucracy-press collusion for classified government information, passing-on to prosecutors of press ‘scoops’ by reporters, and numerous other exchanges between the two separate worlds that are supposed to confront, like the White House press corps and the president. It’s no surprise that while reporters belonging to the Tokyo public prosecutors office press club would ask mundane, boring questions at press conferences, their papers sometimes splash the front pages with scoops, e.g., on former Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn who was arrested and detailed for more than half a year until his escape from Japan last year. The prosecutors office, such as Kurokawa, would drop hints or make leaks at such socializing occasions as mahjong.
It’s more or less the same at the prime minister’s office or even at a local city hall. And by no means defending the prosecutors office, other Japanese government entities also are doing it.
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