If Asahi reporters have known these things for a long time as Prof. Angel mentions why are they just not releasing it? Are they attempting to make life a little harder for the LDP or is just because it sells well?

The “revelations,” I suspect, are directly attributed to the Asahi reporters and editorial board members. This is not coincidence. And certainly they’ve known this, and more, for a long time.

I was encouraged in the beginning. Thinking it might, as you suggest below, reflect something more significant. But after some conversations with a couple of retired journalists …. Well. It’s not a “conspiracy.”
It’s just pre-election politics as usual.

The person most vulnerable to “revelations” now is Ichiro Ozawa. Yet, not a peep! Hmmm. Only the Communists can enjoy hearing this. Or so I
think.

I had asked what he thought of the possibility of there being something deeper going on, even a conspiracy.

I wish the DPJ was that coordinated. At this point, I wouldn’t count any scenario out. I absolutely agree with you that there’s no way this is a coincidence, although Occam’s razor would merely lead to the conclusion that similar offenses were made public one after the other because they’re based on the same info - political fund reports. So, the question remains, who decided to go through reports up to 2005 (which are probably the most recent reports) with a fine-toothed comb, put two and two together, then make the information public? Why didn’t this happen a couple of years ago?

With that in mind, could it be that Koizumi or his allies are behind it? That they didn’t want this to come out while Koizumi was in office?

I think I’d use exposed rather than leaked here, but it seems that way, with the string of scandals. Then again, it does happen from time to time that there are a string of scandals that come to light. Just ask Abe’d dad.

Koizumi develops someone to be his replacement for a year before he leaves. Abe is that someone. Abe takes over but the LDP want change.

Do you mean change as in someone not tainted by Koizumi? I think Abe pulled that off, making peace by bringing back the postal rebels. No doubt, that made Koizumi some enemies and internal party pressure was to bring them back into the fold.

Should someone, or even a few people, be behind the exposure of these scandals, I hope for their sake that they’re clean as a whistle…

I wonder… Ok this is just a theory but Koizumi develops someone to be his replacement for a year before he leaves. Abe is that someone. Abe takes over but the LDP want change. Koizumi knows he is on his way out anyways but by leaving someone else in the wind, might have a better idea of who is outting this information and who was against him the entire time … Thus he learns who his enemies were and still is able to play a major role in the LDP.

Its not Aso. He knows whats happening and has been making a major effort recently to be seen on the international stage so he’s sucking every bit of the limelight up.. But its not him. He has too much to loose if it fails.

The leader of the DPJ was once a liberal… Do you think there could be a connection there? It could be the DPJ is trying to muscle in?

As with all the best scandals, every answer leads to scores more questions.

A 45% approval rating? That’s just getting more and more painful. So who’s behind outing all of these scandals?