Recruit scandal
The recruit scandal ( Japanese リ ク ル ー ト 事件 , rikurūto jiken ) was next to the Lockheed scandal, the largest corruption scandal in post-war Japan .
The company Recruit Cosmos specializes in recruiting young professionals and, among other things, advertises companies in magazines. In 1984 and 1986, shortly before his company was converted into a stock corporation , its owner, Hiromasa Ezoe, gave numerous politicians (such as the later Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori ), members of corporate boards of large companies, professors and civil servants large blocks of shares or sold them at preferential prices. In many cases, the financing company First Finance Co. of the Recruit Group provided complete pre-financing for the share purchase.
In return, for example, some politicians ensured that Recruit-Cosmos was allowed to sell its magazines to universities and to acquire certain properties at a preferential price. With the beginning of the stock exchange listing, the value of the overwritten paper rose, so that those affected could sell them immediately and at great profit.
Under the pressure of public outrage, some of the politicians who received the gift, including the then Prime Minister Takeshita Noboru , had to resign. The scandal brought about political reforms.
literature
- Yayama Tarō: The Recruit scandal: Learning from the causes of corruption. In: Journal of Japanese Studies. 16 (1), 1990, pp. 93-114.
- Jacob M. Schlesinger: Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan's Postwar Political Machine. Stanford University Press, 1999, ISBN 0804734577 .
Web links
- Bribery affair in Tokyo: The power of big money , article by Helmut Becker in der Zeit , No. 2, January 6, 1989