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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (2268)	2/19/1998 9:01:00 AM
From: Bucky Katt	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Japan Scandal MP Facing Arrest Found Hanged 8.35 a.m. ET (1335 GMT) February 19, 1998 TOKYO - A Japanese politician facing imminent arrest in a stock scandal was found hanged in a Tokyo hotel room Thursday in the fourth suicide involving a corruption scandal since the beginning of the year. With parliament apparently set to vote to lift his immunity from arrest, Shokei Arai, 50, was under intense pressure as the hours ticked away before the police came knocking at his door. He checked into a 23rd floor room at a posh Tokyo hotel and took his life. Arai had insisted on his innocence to the end. A member of parliament and former Finance Ministry official, he was suspected of having demanded guarantees of profits on an account he held at brokerage Nikko Securities Co. Such guarantees would have been illegal under Japanese law. Nikko officials, including former managing director Hiroyuki Hamahira, from whom Arai was suspected of demanding the guarantees, had already been arrested on suspicion of illegally compensating a corporate racketeer for stock losses. The suicide came as both sides of the parliamentary aisle demanded his arrest, which he told reporters only hours before his death would have spelled the end of his political career. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party to which Arai belonged was ready to throw him out as soon as the arrest took place. Parliament had been deliberating on prosecutors' request to remove his parliamentary immunity and allow the arrest. The pressure mounted when prosecutors raided Arai's home and offices Wednesday, saying they were worried he would destroy evidence. Arai summoned reporters in the evening to attest to his innocence, playing a tape of his conversation with a man identified as a Nikko executive to show he had not demanded profits on stock transactions. Arai's words to journalists were chilling in retrospect. "There will be no occasion for me to meet with you in the future,'' he said. "What I say at this news conference are the last words of my political life.'' Japanese media quoted police as saying Arai left the news briefing to check into the hotel room where he killed himself. His wife found his body at about 1 p.m. Thursday, many hours after he died, the Mainichi newspaper reported. Suicide is a tragic Japanese tradition, often resorted to as a means of escaping shame. Japan has seen a wave of such deaths. In a single week earlier this month, three public officials under investigation for suspected corruption hanged themselves. And in November, an employee at a small brokerage affiliated with the now-failed Yamaichi Securities committed suicide by leaping to his death from a seven-story building. Suicide is often seen as the ultimate act of protest, and it was not clear what effect it would have on the Japanese political world that pushed Arai out. "He did the traditional samurai thing - you can't stand the shame so you check out,'' said political analyst John Neuffer of Mitsui Research Institute. "He was killed by a flawed system, and ended up alone in a hotel room.'' The news came during speeches in parliament. For a long time after it broke, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto carried on with a speech on education reform without making any comment on the tragedy, even as a series of news bulletins flashed across the top of television screens. Hashimoto finally expressed his condolences, telling parliament in a terse comment: "I don't know the details so I must refrain from comment, but whatever his reasons (for killing himself), I pray that his soul rests in peace.'' Takako Doi, the veteran leader of the Democratic Socialist Party, one of the LDP's coalition allies, told parliament: "Today is a terribly sad day. A member of parliament has taken his life as the permission for his arrest was pending.

To: Stitch who wrote (2268)	2/19/1998 11:49:00 PM
From: Derrick P.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Stitch and all, G7 meeting coming up starting tomorrow and judging from the WSJ much of the focus will be on Asia and particularly Indonesia. An interesting editorial in the WSJ about a currency solution for Indo. They stated that Argentina set up a currency board with the help of the IMF that was backed by a fund contributed to by wealthy Argentinians. That would certainly send a strong message, if instead of using a currency board to get their money out of the country, Suharto and family used their wealth to back the currency and their country. That this has not been proposed in Indonesia's case indicates what level of scum we are dealing with in this situation. The current rumors about the currency board seem to be that it may be postponed to give 'banking and structural reforms' a chance to be implemented. The world's best financial minds seem to be focusing on the Indonesian problem, but I guess as they say 'You can lead a horse to water ...'. Best Regards, Derrick