Japan An Affair to Remember

By Barry Hillenbrand/Tokyo

For months, members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have plaintively referred to the problems besetting their organization as the "triple woes." The phrase refers to popular dissatisfaction over the Recruit stock-shares- for-influence scandal, a three-month-old 3% consumption tax, and a liberalization of agricultural imports that angers farmers, who traditionally support the L.D.P.

Now a fourth woe has descended: four weeks after he took office, the disrobing of Prime Minister Sousuke Uno's personal life has become a source of embarrassment. Last month the Sunday Mainichi magazine published memoirs of Mitsuko Nakanishi, a 40-year-old geisha, who claimed Uno paid her $21,000 during a five-month affair in 1985-86. In Japan, where the rich and famous are commonly assumed to have affairs, the revelation smoldered slowly. Even the geisha's TV appearance attracted little coverage.

Nonetheless the scandal is taking its toll. Last week an L.D.P. candidate lost badly (51% to 44%) to a Japan Socialist Party member in a by-election in Niigata prefecture, usually considered solidly L.D.P. The ruling party was quick to blame the three woes for its defeat. Niigata is the heart of rice- growing country, and the main farming cooperatives declined to endorse the L.D.P., citing the agriculture protection issue.

But the fourth woe was also a factor. Upset over Uno's refusal to answer questions about the alleged affair, female voters deserted the L.D.P. Manae Kubota, a J.S.P. legislator who broke tradition in the Diet when she raised questions about the Prime Minister's personal life, believes that the L.D.P. is suffering because of Uno's actions. "I raised such a 'low-level' question because a man in the highest public office was suspected of the lowest-level deed," said Kubota. "For me it is surprising that a person in a high public office should deal with women like merchandise."

Shaken by the district setback and disturbed by unconfirmed rumors that yet another uncomfortable revelation about his personal life was about to be published, Uno held a late-night meeting with advisers. The next morning, daily headlines declared, UNO REVEALS PLAN TO RESIGN. Newspapers reported that an agitated Uno told his advisers he could "no longer manage my job" in the face of added revelations.

Uno quickly denied any such thing, but the damage was done. Details of his late-night soul-searching were too vivid to be fabricated or to be quickly forgotten. The Nikkei stock average suffered a 517-point drop in one afternoon, falling to 32,951 before partly recovering. "The market thinks Uno is finished," said a Tokyo stockbroker, "and that means more political trouble ahead."

And more rumors. Some L.D.P. sources swore that Uno and his Cabinet would resign within a week. That sounded overly dramatic, but Uno's dithering had created severe uncertainty. The timing is especially bad: it would embarrass the party and the nation if a new Prime Minister had to be picked before the summit of major industrial nations in Paris July 14-17. On July 23 the L.D.P. faces an election for half the 252 seats of the Upper House of the Diet. Uno may soon have more than four woes to worry about.