An obscure communist newspaper is shaping Japan’s politics

Since Japan’s parliamentary session began three months ago, one issue has dominated the agenda: a financial scandal within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). At the end of last year, prosecutors launched an investigation into factions of the LDP which had failed to report revenue from fundraising events, thereby evading taxes. Several people linked to the LDP, including accountants and parliamentarians, have been indicted. In December four cabinet ministers and five vice-ministers were sacked. On April 4th Kishida Fumio, the prime minister, asked two of his party’s heavyweights to quit and punished 37 other LDP members.

What is perhaps surprising is that this political turmoil can be traced back to Shimbun Akahata (“Red Flag Newspaper”), a relatively niche newspaper run by the Japan Communist Party (JCP). It is read by 850,000 subscribers, down from a peak of around 3.5m in 1980. It first reported on the funding discrepancies in 2022. “I didn’t expect things would blow up,” says Sasagawa Kamiyu, the 33-year-old journalist who first reported on the scoop after scrutinising government documents. He worked with Kamiwaki Hiroshi, a law professor at Kobe Gakuin University, who filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors.