February 5, 2026

Akahata editorial (excerpts)

February 5 marks 50 years since the Lockheed bribery scandal, the biggest political-corruption case in postwar Japan which was exposed by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Multinational Corporations.

Lockheed Aircraft Corporation paid a total of 3.5 billion yen to Japanese political and business circles to promote sales of its Tristar passenger aircraft and P3C anti-submarine patrol aircraft.

Sixteen individuals were indicted, including former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei who had received 500 million yen in bribes, a former Marubeni Corp. chairman, an All Nippon Airways (ANA) president, a political-business fixer, and a rightwing war criminal.

Tanaka used the money to fund 26 Liberal Democratic Party candidates in the 1974 House of Councillors election, providing 20 million yen to each. In other words, the LDP used bribes received from a U.S. company to fund its election campaign.

In trials, testimony revealed that money had been funneled not only to the LDP, but also to several high-ranking politicians and their funding organizations through the trading company Marubeni, in order to promote sales of Lockheed planes.

In response to the exposure of this bribery scandal, public opinion intensified, demanding an end to donations from corporations as they encourage corruption. However, the LDP sidestepped this issue by merely setting a cap on corporate donations.

Kodama Yoshio, a CIA collaborator and organized crime figure who had been a Class A war criminal, was promised 2.5 billion yen as the fee for his role in the P3C deal. The Japanese government had originally planned to domestically produce the next-generation anti-submarine patrol aircraft. However, it abruptly scrapped the plan and decided to introduce the P3C instead.

Nakasone Yasuhiro, the LDP secretary-general at the time, secretly contacted a U.S. embassy official, requesting that the U.S. authorities not provide investigative materials to the Japanese side. Nakasone’s attempt to cover up the scandal was also revealed in a classified cable sent from the U.S. ambassador to Japan to the U.S. secretary of state.

While the Lockheed bribery scandal shed light on the structure of money-and-politics corruption as well as on Japan’s subservience to the United States, the full extent of the massive bribes and the role of those who acted behind the scenes remains unclear. To dismantle this corrupt structure, it is essential to place a total ban on corporate donations and replace the LDP government.