Old Face, New Wrinkle

There was a time in Japanese history when the merest hint of personal dishonor would set a samurai to sharpening his hara-kari sword. Not so in postwar Japan, where the old concept of face has taken on a new pragmatic wrinkle. Last week Premier Eisaku Sato, 65, whose Liberal Democratic government lies wreathed in a "black mist" of Cabinet-level scandal (TIME, Nov. 4) went on television and told a nationwide audience: "It is regrettable that my administration and party have invited public distrust for lack of moral standards. The main thing is that I, as the responsible person, fully grasp the implications." On the theory that he could best correct the situation, Sato thereupon announced his candidacy for a second term as party president. No one doubted that he would win.

Sato's key opponent for the post is former Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama, 69, a dapper industrialist-idealist who is known as "the silk handkerchief" for his dilettantist ways. Running against Sato for the leadership in 1964, Fujiyama won only 72 votes of 476 cast. In this week's election, he hopes to crystallize latent discontent within the party and win 150 votes or more; another faction has already decided to cast its 70 votes neither for Sato nor for Fujiyama but for its own leader. Together, those defections might cause trouble for Sato in next year's national elections. Though the government's Socialist and Communist opposition is badly split as well, a Liberal Democratic rift could endanger the party's 20 years of postwar rule. To blunt the edge of Fujiyama's thrust, Sato last week promised "sweeping Cabinet reforms" of his own as soon as the party election is past.

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