Japan Numero Uno

The latest chapter in Japan's influence-peddling scandal came to a close last week as Foreign Minister Sousuke Uno was named Prime Minister. Uno replaces Noboru Takeshita, who resigned to save his ruling Liberal Democratic Party from further embarrassment over the scandal. Uno promised political reform and pledged to "regain the confidence of the people."

He'll have a way to go. Opposition leaders and some L.D.P. members have criticized the choice of Uno, a former member of the faction led by ex-Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, during whose administration (1982-87) the Recruit Co. helped line politicians' pockets by offering to sell them stock in its real estate subsidiary at reduced rates before it went public. The next chapter of the Recruit scandal may be written when voters go to the polls next month to fill 126 seats in the upper house of the Diet.