The 1965 - 1973 Yomiuri Giants are considered by many to have been the greatest basbeball team ever fielded in Japan.  Their manager, the notoriously strict and controlling “God of Batting,” Tetsuharu Kawakami, once said he drew inspiration from Musashi Miyamoto, who is said to have uttered the aphorism that has guided many a leader in any field: “One thousand days to learn, ten-thousand days to refine.” 

As scandal predictably broke around newly appointed Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo, mere days after the new Cabinet was formed, he said, “As I have assumed the post of minister, I want to make utmost efforts.”

Apparently that means a week.  What would Kawakami say?

After admitting to defrauding the government fo 1.15 million yen is subsidies paid to a farmers’ mutual aid association over which he presided in his home prefecture, Yamagata, and admitting to having received a 50,000 en political donation from a subsidized livestock dealer, Endo said he wouldn’t step down.

The feisty opposition Democratic Party of Japan said they’d hound him to do so as soon as the extraordinary Diet session got under way on September 10th.

Despite the brief honeymoon for the new Cabinet, in which there was talk of the LDP regrouping and warding off what was sure to be one of the best attacks the DPJ had ever put together, it seemed Prime Minister Abe just could not put together a Cabinet without blatantly corrupt and/or wholly incompetent ministers.

Well, Bunmei Ibuki is still Minister of Education, so incompetence is still prized by the Prime Minister.  Endo became the third of three Abe-appointed farm ministers to be unable to keep his hands out of the cookie jar.

Abe seems to have made on smart appointment, though - that of Kaoru Yosano as Chief Cabinet Secretary.  Yosano met with Endo on Sunday and apparently told him that if doing his “utmost” meant doing his best, then the best he could do would be to skedaddle.

He did.  Endo turned in his resignation this morning (Monday).

Why all the trouble with Ministers of Agriculture?

It’s not that they’re the only ones who are crooked, not by a long shot.  Perhaps one of Prime Minister Abe’s greatest skills is finding corrupt, dishonest, or incompetent appointees to handle a variety of portfolios.  In some cases, such as that of the aforementioned Ibuki, he gets all three traits in one guy.

What is it about Endo’s recently vacated position, though?  He was preceded by Akagi, who had topped his predecessor Matsuoka in the astounding size of discrepancies in their political fund reports.

Matsuoka hung on for a while before leaving via suicide.  Akagi had just barely warmed his seat, and Endo had yet to get comfortable.

I have an idea.  Not a brilliant one, but something that seems rather obvious to me:  Agriculture has always been the LDP’s main vehicle for patronage - from giving large subsidies to farmers, to raising tariffs to absurd levels, to showering the countryside with concrete, rural districts have always been involved in the dirty deeds of the ruling party.

In other words, the question shouldn’t be why are politicians with exposure to agriculture consistently crooked, but how could they not be?

Kickbacks, considerations, gifts, call them what you will, but money flows from taxpayers’ pockets, to the treasury, and into the pockets of politicians, as it makes its way to the paving of a river somewhere in a rural district or to a huge agriculture subsidy given to an industry that will never be competitive and benefits by not becoming so.

The way to rise to the top is to garner support through patronage, to buy and be bought one step at a time.  For some politicans, such as the DPJ’s newly elected “Sakura Papa,” this is the reason for becoming a pol in the first place.

So, how can Abe get an Agricultue Minister who doesn’t have manure on his shoes?  He can get someone with no background in agricultural politics.

Unwise.

He can accept a certain level of dishonesty.

Saddening.

He can get someone with no background in agricultural politics.

It’s a Catch-22.

You get the idea.