Watanabe-style story

Japan's press implements a press club system, and journalists sent by major media to the Prime Minister's Office, major government agencies (ministries and commissions) and relevant politicians have quotas. However, due to the developed and large-scale media, there are often a group of journalists working around some big-name politicians. Politicians cannot treat all media and journalists equally because of their political inclinations and likes and dislikes. Limited information resources tend to flow into some media preferentially and directionally. This is Japanese nature, and journalists are not surprised by each other. In the evening, there are more than a dozen reporters in Xiao Ye's living room, sitting on tatami, chatting and waiting for news. Xiao Ye's human nature likes romantic talk, one joke after another, and the burden is constantly dumped. When he is in a good mood, he often talks for an hour. The reporter was so afraid of this that he got tired of listening to it for ten times and patted his ass and left. Watanabe also got up and pretended to leave. After bidding farewell to the last batch of reporters, he quietly turned back alone. Bypass the main entrance, climb over the fence and go straight to the maid: "Please call the old man." So, they cut to the chase.

Politicians who like to joke are not only Xiao Ye, but also former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke. If Xiao Ye's jokes are some kind of humorous talk aimed at shaking the burden, then Kishi Nobusuke's jokes are the real muddy jokes, which are impromptu, direct and intense. For this kind of entertainment, Watanabe enjoys it, takes it back, connects with others, and often plays the role of champion. To this end, reporters repeatedly protested: "Watanabe, that's enough. Every time because of your duet with Teacher An, everyone can't make a difference in the interview. "

As a reporter who followed Xiao Ye, Watanabe chose to rent a house just a stone's throw away from Xiao Ye Mansion after marriage, reported to Xiao Ye Mansion during the day and worked as a day shift with wine at night. As a political journalist, Watanabe's influence is increasing day by day. He is not only deeply involved in factional politics, but also makes some important decisions within the faction by Watanabe to other media colleagues in the press corps. In fact, he plays the role of factional strategist. Ito, the secretary of former Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato, wrote in the book Tsuneya Watanabe: Media and Power: "How did Xiao Ye make decisions on political actions? As long as we sort out the path determined by his will, we will find that Watanabe was touched in the last link. Watanabe not only collects information as Xiao Ye's ears and eyes, but also plays the role of the brain as a command tower. " This was particularly evident when Nakasone Yasuhiro joined, and he later became the prime minister.

In Japanese political circles, the success of young politicians lies in joining the cabinet, holding as many important cabinet positions or important positions within the party as possible, accumulating experience, contacts and golden veins, paving the way for their greatness and eventually becoming kings. As a young political talent, Nakasone was elected as a member of the National Assembly at the age of 29, but because he is a member of the Kono faction, a minority in the Party, he has a long way to go. So, Watanabe set up a bureau in an advanced pavilion, and arranged for Xiao Ye, then the party's vice president and the window of Kono faction to meet Nakasone. Unexpectedly, as soon as they met, Xiao Ye really accused Nakasone of taking bribes: "It was your boy who was suspected of being imprisoned for shipbuilding (petitioning for the enactment of the Supplementary Law on Foreign Ship Construction Interest aimed at reducing the interest rate of shipbuilding loans). 1954 1, the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office intervened in the judicial investigation by force, and many important figures from the political and financial circles were involved in it, which also became one of the reasons for the overthrow of Ji Tianmao's cabinet and a stain on postwar politics. After Seicho Matsumoto, a famous mystery novelist, published the novel Black Fog in Japan with this incident as the background, the budget committee said, "Xiao Ye Sakaki took bribes, and I dare to gamble my political life"? I haven't forgotten the revenge of that sword at that time! " Seeing that the situation was not good, Watanabe came out and said, "The vice president is so outspoken. But for the past, who says you don't grind or nag? At that time, Nakasone was still on the side of the opposition Reform Party. I hate people's speeches in the opposition party era. At this moment, the old words are revisited, not quite like the vice president? " This sentence immediately eased the stiff air. Xiao Ye said, "Well, yes, I see. However, Nakasone Genjun, you have the appearance of a president. " Watanabe said, "Because Nakasone is a Kono faction, it is far from the cabinet entrance window, so it cannot be displayed. As a vice principal, you have the right to recommend Kono School. In any case, please help promote Nakasone to join the cabinet. " In a word, in June, 1959,1,Nakasone became the only member of Kono School who joined the cabinet, and became the second director of the science and technology department in Kishi Nobusuke to transform the cabinet, at the age of 4 1. And Xiao Ye's words of "to the President" surprised Watanabe. Nakasone's later political success also denied Xiao Ye's insight.

After Nakasone entered the cabinet, one day he asked Watanabe to go to his office and took out a thick stack of documents-the investigation report of the prosecutor suspected of shipbuilding prison incident: "My high school classmate is the prosecutor of this case and secretly gave the materials to me as an opposition party." Watanabe flipped through it, and there was a hand-drawn sketch: in a single room of a pavilion, where Xiao Ye Cong sat, where other people related to the incident sat, and where the geisha sat, clearly. According to the investigation results of the prosecution, Nakasone had touched the bottom of the relationship between giving and receiving before Congress made a move against Xiao Ye. For Nakasone, a youthful man, being sprayed with dog blood in front of Watanabe, who represents the press, but apologizing to others for joining the cabinet is tantamount to humiliating his legs. So I specifically asked Watanabe: "The attack at that time was entirely based on actual things. Be sure to let Watanabe understand this. "

This is an opportunity for Watanabe and rising political star Nakasone to become allies and spend their honeymoon together. At the same time, it also made Watanabe more clearly realize that "policy considerations such as ideology and diplomatic strategy are not absolute. When people struggle for power and profit in the toilet, emotional factors such as hatred, jealousy and inferiority often play a greater role. "

Another politician who is very close to Watanabe is tanaka kakuei. As a political journalist, Watanabe has high hopes for Tanaka because of his keen sense of smell. After the war, starting from Ji Tianmao, all the prime ministers such as Kishi Nobusuke, Ikeda (the brave) and Sato (Zuo Rong) started from bureaucrats, and their regimes were suffocating. Only Tanaka, a "dark horse" who didn't have a college degree, made a fortune in the construction industry and successfully joined the cabinet at the age of 38, can achieve a great cause of "party politics" to wash away the conservatism and despair of bureaucracy. At that time, Watanabe had just returned to China after four years as a special correspondent in the Washington Branch. He immediately devoted himself to the related reporting activities of "The Battle of the Rich" (as the media called the battle between tanaka kakuei and Fukuda Takeo for the position of Party President and Prime Minister).

Judging from his personality orientation and political strength, Watanabe is undoubtedly a fan of Tanaka: "Teacher Jiao (the nickname of tanaka kakuei by media people) tells you everything, which is very frank and is a fountain of information. His speech was very interesting. If he graduated from the Faculty of Law of Dongda University, he will never be the prime minister. At most, he will be the second-in-command of the provincial department or the president of the development bank. "

1965, Tanaka served as the secretary-general of the liberal democratic party, one step away from the presidency. Some political reporters from major newspapers, including Watanabe, go to Tanaka's house every night. Tanaka attaches great importance to homesickness and loyalty. More than half of the dozens of people he meets every day come from his hometown. This is a waste of time for Watanabe, a media elite who was born in Tokyo and graduated from Dongda University. Finally, one day I couldn't bear it anymore and said to Tanaka, "On the whole, Mr. Jiao is already the secretary-general. The next step is to become the president of the Prime Minister. I'd rather see dozens of hillbillies every day than our reporters. What is this? " The northeastern Tanaka suddenly became angry: "What is a hillbilly? Watanabe, take it back for me! " Watanabe knew that he was wrong, but he was also very angry and said that he could not take it back. Tanaka is even more angry: "You interfere in internal affairs! Who I want to see and what I want to do is entirely up to me. Every time your boy comes over, don't I talk to you for half an hour? When did I neglect you? " What Tanaka said is true. He often chats with Watanabe while eating breakfast. But in this embarrassing atmosphere, Watanabe thought that he could not lose his big name, so he insisted that he was not talking about himself, but "talking about all journalists" and left angrily. Later, Watanabe listened to Tanaka's secretary Sakamoto, saying, "Teacher Jiao said that he really wanted to beat that boy Watanabe." But Tanaka doesn't hold grudges, and the past is the past.

Tanaka kakuei is at least a master, if not the initiator of Japanese financial power politics after World War II. Driven by political contributions, Tanaka faction became the largest faction in the party and lasted for a long time. Not only that, politics is closely related to the interests of builders, which has spawned power structures such as "architectural clan" and "road clan" and has always been the source of Japanese black gold politics. Not long ago, Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, who was criticized by public opinion for his involvement in Victoria Song's illegal political donation case, was a disciple of Tanaka. In this regard, Watanabe, who has been breathing in the political whirlpool for many years and knows the rules of the factional valve political game, naturally knows: "When you become a politician, take money from the big boss. Take the money and give it to the children below when you are able to collect it. In the political circles at that time, this was an iron law. Although it is the cause of political corruption, people who don't do this will never be the boss. With the strengthening of the Law on the Control of Political Funds, newspapers are also desperately attacking the politics of financial power. It seems that the situation has not been so serious recently, which is a good thing, but I don't think this stereotype has completely disappeared. "

But even so, Watanabe himself has reservations about the extreme exposure of his colleague Li Hualong in The Spring and Autumn Annals of Literature. There are both legislative problems (before 1975 revised the original Law on the Management of Political Funds, the legal provisions on donations for political activities were extremely broad) and the social effects of legal funds revealed by public opinion: "If it is not illegal, it will become a means of collecting money in criminal cases, and newspapers and television should not have exposed it."

In his memoirs, Watanabe revealed many ways of collecting and distributing wealth beyond ordinary people's cognition and imagination. Some of them have never been made public. According to Asahi Shimbun reporter Miura, former NHK presenter and Senator Gong Tianhui came out of Tanaka's house with a big paper bag and ran into San Pu who was about to enter the door. Miyata was startled, the paper bag fell to the ground, and bundles of banknotes were scattered all over the floor. "About 30 million yen." Miyata panicked and ignored the greeting. She lowered her head, picked up the money, put it in a paper bag and rushed to the door. Like Watanabe, San Pu, a well-informed current affairs reporter, couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "After all, Teacher Jiao is playing big, which is not an order of magnitude with what we usually hear."

After writing a serial column (my resume) in Tanaka, the reporter from Nihon Keizai Shimbun visited your home because Tanaka said he wanted to buy a considerable number of published books. "Mr. Jiao opened the big safe and took out 2 million yen in a few slaps. Of course, they are all genuine books. " When the reporter asked for a receipt, Mr. Jiao said, "That thing is unnecessary." The reporter stole a look at the safe. "There are bundles of banknotes in it, piled up like newspaper manuscript paper." Due to legal provisions and other reasons, Japanese political funds have one characteristic: cashism. Not cash. It's all useless "I took cash and paid it in cash, so there is no trace."

1976, with the Lockheed incident (1976 February, the black gold incident in the aviation industry, which was exposed by the press because of the testimony of the Subcommittee on Multinational Enterprises in the upper house of the United States, was one of the four major scandals in Japan after the war. Lockheed Company of the United States bribed senior Japanese government officials to change the aircraft models purchased by ANA from the United States. The incident led to the downfall of the tanaka kakuei regime, and many people, including tanaka kakuei and his secretary, former Minister of Communications and Deputy Minister, ANA and Marubeni executives, were prosecuted. The verdict of first instance and second instance was guilty. Tanaka, who was "retired" by the media two years ago, was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes and violating the Foreign Exchange Control Law. This is the biggest crisis of conservative politics created by Yoshida (Mao), Ikeda (Yongren), Sato (Zuo Rong) and Tanaka (Jiao Rong) after the war, and it is called "conservative ideological trend". There are two opposing forces in politics, always competing with each other. At this time, however, the two forces suddenly joined forces and pointed their finger at Prime Minister Takeo Miki, who took the Lockheed incident as the operation. The "party promotion system" aimed at "knocking down the wood" quickly formed, and even the largest anti-Tanaka faction Fukuda Takeo joined in.

At this point, the political machine of modern Japan began to operate in coordinates different from morality. After Tanaka was arrested, his evaluation rose, and the sympathy of public opinion and political circles obviously tilted towards Tanaka. Judging from the mainstream public opinion at that time, the practice of arresting the former prime minister was somewhat "excessive" anyway. Here, the conservative side of Japanese social psychology has surfaced again: the national subconscious (or collective unconscious) can sometimes transcend moral laws and pay more attention to the realistic rules of the game.

Tanaka is really "courageous". In the detention center, regardless of the prosecution's various questions, he vowed not to spit a word. A month later, he was released on bail. Finally, he died before the final guilty verdict. Whether Tanaka is a "good jade" is another matter, but it is an indisputable fact that the conservative political quality he inherited and led is still the main color of Japanese politics: until 1985, he fell ill due to a cerebral infarction and lost his ability to speak and act. Tanaka was the behind-the-scenes trader in politics, an out-and-out political hero and "king-maker". Today, the Machimura faction, which originated from the former Tanaka faction, is still the largest strength faction in the Liberal Democratic Party.

As Japan's leading political journalist, Watanabe has had contacts with all the post-war prime ministers and powerful politicians, and his readers are numerous. At the same time, there are also many political contacts and countless opportunities to enter politics. According to him, there are journalists, subordinates, politicians and even the secretary of the Prime Minister. Former Prime Minister Takeo Miki also advised him to give up newspapers and go into politics. Besides, Watanabe is not "neat" about politics itself, at least not annoying. But in his 60-year career as a political journalist, he never felt the urge to "get into the water". He really "walked by the river and never got his shoes wet". Most people will think that it takes a lot of determination. But for "news fundamentalist" Watanabe, this is a natural choice. In Watanabe's mind, even the position of president of the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world's largest newspaper, doesn't matter. "As long as you can carry out the main writing, it will do. I just want to be a reporter in my career. "

For Japan, known as the media society, the press is not only a simple bystander, reporter and commentator of social politics, but also a participant in the real political game in a sense. As a political journalist, Watanabe's words and deeds fully reflect this point. Far from saying, a few years ago, in view of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's indifference to the political misconduct and deterioration of Sino-Korean diplomacy and his persistent paranoia about visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, he had a long dialogue with the editor-in-chief of Asahi Shimbun, accusing Junichiro Koizumi of being "uneducated" as a politician, and made a move to bring former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Democratic Party, together two years ago to realize.

Perhaps it is precisely because of this prominent power that those who are as indifferent as Watanabe would rather give up the game of competing for the throne of "king" in real politics and become "uncrowned kings".