TOKYO Japan's ruling coalition and the opposition are set to clash over a new anti-corruption bill when Parliament convenes on Thursday under the shadow of a former construction minister's recent arrest in a bribery scandal.
The ruling parties, led by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will submit a bill to ban influence-peddling by politicians in response to public outrage over the June arrest of ex-construction minister and former LDP lawmaker Eiichi Nakao.
The bill will go a step further than existing bribery laws by making it a crime for politicians to influence civil servants on behalf of a third party for financial gain.
But it is likely to become one of the most contentious issues of the 72-day parliamentary session, with the opposition parties already blasting it as full of loopholes and insufficient to end Japan's long history of political corruption. They plan to submit an alternative bill they believe will be much stricter.
Japan's recent political history abounds with bribery scandals, but only a handful of prominent lawmakers have been arrested.
Analysts cite narrow legal definitions of bribery as a major reason.
Scandals Abound The favors provided in return for financial gain must fall strictly within a lawmaker's area of authority to be considered bribery.
Such was the case with Nakao, who is suspected of receiving cash from a construction company in return for channeling public works projects to the firm while he was construction minister.
In the 1989 recruit Shares-for-Favors Scandal, many influential politicians were implicated, including current Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, but only one politician was convicted of bribery.
The proposed legislation would make it a crime for lawmakers, regardless of their position, to use their influence on government officials in return for financial gain.
If found guilty, a politician would be stripped of the right to vote in elections and to run for office for a certain period.
But opposition parties charge the ruling bloc's bill is riddled with loopholes and will allow politicians to keep using their influence to reap financial benefits.
The main opposition Democratic Party says the proposal allows privately hired aides to act on behalf of politicians in influence peddling.
The restrictions in the coalition's bill only apply to official secretaries whose salaries are paid by the government, but most lawmakers hire private secretaries, sometimes as many as 10 or more, in addition to their two official assistants.
Loopholes Galore In many bribery scandals politicians have placed the blame on their aides, saying they acted on their own.
"It's difficult to comprehend why the bill left out private secretaries," said Takeshi Tsuchimoto, a former prosecutor and now a professor at Teikyo University.
Coalition leaders in fact had to overcome strong opposition, particularly within the LDP, to tightening the restrictions as much as they did.
"We don't want the bill to make criminals out of politicians who are acting as mediators out of goodwill," said Shizuka Kamei, the LDP's policy chief.
Despite the expected showdown in Parliament, Japanese voters many fed up with a decades-long diet of corruption scandals appear to have lost interest or become plain numb.
And opposition MPs are hardly immune from scandal. A Democratic lawmaker was arrested this month on suspicion of misusing part of the salary paid by the government to his official secretary.
"Corruption is in their bones," said Yasuhiro Kato, a 31-year-old office worker. "Things won't change." (Reuter)