The Era of Groping in the Dark Side of Politics: Japanese Politics and the Shift in Public Opinion, 1974-1976

The Era of Groping in the Dark Side of Politics: Japanese Politics and the Shift in Public Opinion, 1974-1976

Around 1975, there was a thick atmosphere of instability in Japanese politics, as if the ground itself was slowly shaking. It was no coincidence that a magazine article stated, "The world of politics is a dark place," but there was a multilayered shadow over that period. First, the Kakuei Tanaka money connections scandal that surfaced in 1974 turned the public's attention to the other side of politics, casting a shadow of distrust over the every move of politicians. Kakuei was regarded as a politician with a can-do attitude, but at the same time his name was inscribed as a symbol of money politics because of the opaqueness of his corporate donations and land transactions. His resignation did not mean the end of the situation, but only the beginning of the political turmoil that was to follow.

The cabinet of Takeo Miki, which emerged after Tanaka's resignation, was always on shaky ground, as it was continually opposed by the Kakuei faction within the party, despite its commitment to clean politics. In Nagata-cho, the power of factions pulled invisible strings, and tensions remained high, with no one knowing who might lose his or her post at any moment. Politics wavered as if it had lost its axis, and an unforeseen fear of what might happen tomorrow spread among the people.

On top of this, the economic uncertainty that followed the 1973 oil shock deepened the distrust of politics. Prices remained unsettled, small businesses took a hit, and real wages stagnated. From the perspective of daily life, even a single change in a market price tag cast a shadow over the future, precipitating a quiet anxiety in the hearts of the people. The political turmoil has further inflated this anxiety, blurring the outlines of what can be depended on.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., President Nixon resigned in 1974 after the Watergate scandal, and the dramatic development of "the judiciary judging even the president" shocked the world. Among Japanese intellectuals, there was a sense of wonder and envy at the strength of the American judiciary, which made them even more aware of the lack of transparency and ambiguous familiarity between the powers that be in Japanese politics. The sentence in the magazine, "The United States is a superior nation in its ability to prosecute with impunity the judiciary," may seem like a light-hearted joke, but it is a sharp reminder of the low self-esteem Japanese people had at the time.

When superimposed on this background, it becomes clear that behind the sentence, "Politics is a dark place," lies deep within the murkiness and vacillation that Japan was facing from 1974 to 1976. Political turmoil, economic instability, and international turmoil were intricately intertwined, and the people of Japan were spending their days groping their way through the darkness, unable to see what lay ahead. The words written in the magazine are like an unintentional sigh of the times, conveying the outlines of the "darkness" that the Japanese of that era paused and gazed upon.