Controversial Three in Japan
Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto is a lawyer who had clients in catering establishment situated in a prostitution district and a gangster-like money lending business in Osaka Prefecture.
But as he happened to make TV appearance so much, some politicians including Shinzo Abe picked up him as a young and rising star in the Japanese politics.
Osaka voters were not fully informed of Hashimoto's dark linkage with gangsters or a kind of gangsters. But they thought Hashimoto was a lawyer making business with some decent clients, such as Sony and Panasonic. Besides, Hashimoto graduated from a famous Osaka high-school and then from Waseda University, a first-rate private university in Japan. So, voters of Osaka Prefecture elected Hashimoto as Governor of Osaka Prefecture, and then after his strategic resignation from the governor's office voters of Osaka City elected him as Mayor of Osaka City.
Hashimoto's relatives include some gangsters or ex-gangsters. One of his close friends is an ex-popular comedian who was purged from TV business due to his association with the Yamaguchi-Gumi Mafia group, the largest gangster syndicate in Japan.
But as Hashimoto enjoyed a very high supporting rate till the last year, some national lawmakers tied up with him. One of them is incumbent Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, though their relationship was mostly developed when the LDP, a party where Abe belongs, was an opposition party before December 2013. Now it looks like that as Abe has become prime minister again (he was PM in 2006 and 2007, too), Abe does not need Hashimoto so much.
And another politician who is using Hashimoto is ex-Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara who is 80-years old. Ishihara's eldest son Nobuteru was defeated by Abe last year in the election to choose the head of the LDP. So, father Ishihara came back to the national assembly to form a new party called, Ishin-no Kai, and set up Hashimoto as the co-president of the Ishin-no Kai Party.
So, three controversial very conservative politicians, Hashimito, Abe, and Ishihara, are trying to lead Japan to a controversial direction. One of byproducts of their movement is a stupid remark by Hashimoto on women who provided services for soldiers in WWII.
But this kind of matter should not be handled by a gangster-related guy, such as Hashimoto.
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Mat 5:26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
Mat 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: