Labels:text | man | human face | clothing | screenshot | newspaper | investor | person OCR: INSIGHT At its peak in 1986, Democrats by day," claims Kusakawa Shozo, the LDP faction led member of the centrist Komeito Party "But, come by Tanaka Kakuei boasted 140 Diet evening, they would go to an expensive Japanese members, nearly one- restaurant and shake hands." fifth of the No strategy, though, could match the effective- representatives of ness of money. In 1980 alone Kanemaru spent an both Houses estimated US$13 million to keep the opposition parties tamed. One LDP member went as far as the Diet's frequent to claim, "Every time the Socialists halt the Diet Left-Right duel, wh- from passing a bill, we spend $350,000 to get it ich often halted the moving again." legislative process. When he assumed The Usurper his party's DPC While Kanemaru was gaining influence, chairmanship in 1972, he launched an aggressive there was one man he feared: Tanaka courtship of members of opposing parties-some- Kakuei, his boss and head of the LDP's thing that "no politician had ever done before," biggest faction. At its peak in 1986, the Tanaka says analyst Kusayanagi. faction boasted 140 Diet members, nearly one-fifth The key to Kanemaru's successful Diet mani- of the representatives of both Houses. When a pulation was Tanabe Makoto, a Socialist who be- scandal blew up in his face in 1976, Tanaka moved came vice-chairman of his party's DPC the year into the shadows, but continued to control his fac- Kanemaru became chairman of his. No one seems tion-and, by extension, Nagatacho. certain why the two drew so close, but over the But Kanemaru was finding the Old Man increas- next two decades they became inseparable. The ingly estranged from him. He fired the first shot in result: "The Socialists would hammer the Liberal 1977, when he publicly broke ranks with his faction
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