[/floatr]Time Magazine has a lot of material archived and their old Japan articles can make for some interesting reading. Here's one on the LDP backstage dealings following Prime Minister Kishi's resignation in 1960:
The Last Blow
...From all over Japan, Liberal Democratic delegates convened in Tokyo to pick a new party president, who would automatically become the party's nominee for Premier. Kishi's choice was Trade Minister Hayato Ikeda. But ability or ideology had little to do with the battle. As is their custom, big Japanese business firms, hoping for future friendly treatment in such matters as import licenses, taxes and government contracts, backed one or another of the eight party factions to the tune of $4,000,000. By common consent, it was the most corrupt convention in the party's short history. One happy delegate from southern Kyushu explained how the money went. His air ticket to Tokyo had been bought by the Ikeda faction. But before he could board the plane, he was approached by a forceful hakoshi, or delegate rustler, from a rival faction, who persuaded him to swap his air ticket for a first-class train ride, "all meals paid for, and plenty of sake." But once aboard the train, the delegate fell in with a smooth-talking hakoshi of the Fujiyama faction, who persuaded him to descend for a night of pleasure in the resort town of Atami, 60 miles short of Tokyo. Before resuming the journey next day. the delegate was presented with a cakebox, and the modest explanation: "It's only a little ochugen' (a traditional midyear gift). The cakebox was stuffed with crisp 10,000-yen (about $28 ) notes. At Tokyo Station, the delegate was snatched from the Fujiyama hakoshi by burly Ikeda hakoshi, who bundled him into a waiting car and drove him to a plush, Western-style hotel (the paper-thin walls of Japanese inns might leak secrets). There a double room with bath awaited him and, on a bedside table, another cake-box stuffed with yen. Under guard until convention time, the delegate was at last safely counted as kanzume (in the can) for Candidate Ikeda...more...
