Photo/Illutration Tadashi Matsumaru, left, and Teruyuki Ogoshi, lawyers for the widow of a Finance Ministry official who committed suicide, hold up the blacked out pages sent to the bereaved family about his death. (Satoru Ogawa)

A spitball, a piece of paper that has been chewed and shaped into a ball, is shot through a drinking straw for use as a missile.

Figuratively speaking, words written on a piece of paper can sometimes become a spitball that hits political leaders where it hurts.

And that was precisely what "Five Bandits," a satirical poem published by South Korean dissident Kim Chi-ha in 1970, did to President Park Chung-hee's military dictatorship.

Likening the nation's plutocrats, legislators and other powerful elite figures to "five traitors," Kim attacked them ruthlessly.

In a Japanese translation of the poem by Sentaro Shibuya (1937-2017), senior bureaucrats are described as "never doing what they can do, but completing impossible tasks with ease, with official documents piled high on their desks and fat wads of cash under their desks." The poem got Kim arrested.

Here in present-day Japan, a heavy and stinging spitball has been fired, so to speak.

This came in the form of the disclosure of a personal account, written by Toshio Akagi, a low-ranking official of the Kinki Local Finance Bureau who was forced to falsify documents related to the Moritomo Gakuen scandal.

Akagi, who eventually killed himself, is believed to have written the account just before his death.

The content is dynamite.

According to Akagi, the order to doctor the documents came from Nobuhisa Sagawa, who was director-general of the Financial Bureau of the Finance Ministry at the time. The parts to be altered were substantially expanded by Sagawa's subordinates, who then forced Kinki Local Bureau officials to see to the alterations.

Akagi noted that some of his colleagues had no qualms about obeying the order.

His account revealed systemic wrongdoing and disregard of the law that went on unchecked inside the mammoth organization.

Akagi's widow filed a damages suit on March 18 against the government and Sagawa. But the Finance Ministry chose not to even re-investigate the matter.

Self-preservation appears to be all the ministry cares about.

Kim's poem contains this stunning depiction of the nature of elite bureaucrats: "They behave as pet lapdogs before their superiors, and as hunting dogs when dealing with subordinates."

Applying that to the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, I picture in my mind's eye a pack of lapdogs surrounding their masters, and ultimately wagging their tails at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

A spitball has been hurled at Abe.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 21

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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