ABSTRACT
The Noboru Takeshita administration’s approach to the resolution of political problems and regional development surpassed Kakuei Tanaka’s in the amount of largesse distributed. In one policy initiative, for example, Takeshita simply gave 10 million yen to every local authority in the country for each to use as it saw fit. In reaction to the legacy of Tanaka’s deficit financing, the Ministry of Finance had convinced politicians that a new tax was necessary to pay for further government spending, proposed by Takeshita. The scandal began when Nakasone agreed to support Takeshita for the premiership in exchange for Takeshita’s promise to deal with the right-wing splinter group, the Imperial People’s Party, which was noisily campaigning against Takeshita. Takeshita’s faction was destroyed by Ozawa Ichiro as he led a group of defectors from the faction to form another under the nominal leadership of Tsutomu Hata while the Takeshita loyalists remained under his successor, Keizo Obuchi.
