The sensational Teijin scandal of the 1930s was Japan’s most notable interwar political bribery case. Compared to numerous Japanese corruption cases of the past century, the Teijin affair not only stands out as the most sensational of the pre-1945 era, but is also a leading candidate for the most important corruption case, because it left an indelible mark on the public mind. When people think about the financial world of the 1930s, the Banchōkai and the Teijin scandal come immediately to mind.¹ And the Teijin case lives on in the postwar era.² For example, the political critic Yayama Tarō, writing...

The Tokugawa regime (1603–1867) was a transcendental administrative state in which superiors issued orders or delegated power to inferiors; the outstanding trait of this political system was a lack of legal redress against authority.¹ A long peace and commercial development, however, stimulated the emergence of two essentials of positive law: decrees (authority) and precedents (regularity).² A primary concern of the growing body of positive law was to reenforce the regime’s status regulations by a harsh criminal code. In 1742 the Kujikata osadamegaki assembled important precedents and statutes in a two-volume code; book 1 was mainly administrative orders, and book...

Since the Teijin scandal and subsequent prosecution arose from a stock sale, a brief look at customary business practices, economic conditions, joint-stock companies, and “artificial silk” is called for. Furthermore, the state of business ethics, as judged by scholars and businessmen, is presented below in order to explain the press and public willingness to believe accusations of illegal acts by the purchasers of Teijin Company stocks.

Japanese capitalism was plagued with contradictions. Businessmen found it difficult to discuss profit incentives, as they claimed to work for the nation’s advancement. Yet they praised private competition while eagerly taking state aid. After...

A proper understanding of the Teijin Company stock sale scandal, which destroyed the Saitō Cabinet, demands a close look at the cabinet’s origins. Only by embedding the Teijin scandal in a “thick” history of politics can an observer gain proper insights into this complicated affair. The politics of the Saitō Cabinet era, like the politics of earlier years, was a battle to control the cabinet. Immediately after the formation of the Saitō Cabinet, the ceaseless power struggle resumed, with political foes maneuvering to topple the cabinet. Among the political weapons employed was the venerable one of corruption accusations. Cabinet Ministers...

Neither Kuroda’s death nor a cabinet change stopped Tokyo procurators’ preparations for preliminary court hearings. Former minister Nakajima was interrogated by procurators after the Saitō Cabinet fell and was indicted; former minister Mitsuchi was questioned in August but not indicted until September. As suspects were arrested, between April 28 and September 13, 1934, procurators indicted them for various crimes. In brief, procurators decided that Teijin stock shares were sold at below fair market price, so the sellers were charged with misfeasance. Finance Ministry personnel and Nakajima, who were connected with the sale, were charged with bribery; Mitsuchi was accused of...

The trial began on June 22, 1935, and ended on October 5, 1937. Judges issued a verdict on December 16. Thus, the Teijin scandal resulted in the longest district criminal court trial in pre-1945 Japan; it continued for a record-setting 265 sessions, excluding the day the verdict was issued. There were criminal cases that lasted longer, but they involved appeals to higher courts. Fujii Goichirō, who presided over the sensational Blood Pact Group trial (the defendants were convicted of killing Dan Takuma and Inoue Junnosuke in 1932), was the chief judge. His assistants were Ishida Kazuto and Okazaki Tōichi. Kishi...

Even as the public chuckled over the monkey-moon analogy, Imamura Rikisaburō’s courtroom defense summary was being set in metal type.Teijin Incident Summation(Teijin jiken benron) was privately issued on January 1, 1938. This book, which presented the public with details about the sensational Teijin trial, must have annoyed already angry procurators.

In several places Imamura cited examples of illegal actions by procurators in this and other cases (e.g., leaking information from Tokyo procurators to the press, pressuring a suspect in a high-profile political case to change dates in his statement in order to implicate another person, telling suspects that...

Criticism of the criminal justice system was reinforced after August 1945 by the views of foreign reformers. During the American-dominated occupation, the problems of abuses by police and procurators as well as flaws in the court system were revisited. Thus, criminal justice system reforms put in place during the early postwar era are a synergetic product produced by domestic and foreign reformers. No doubt many foreign reformers were unaware of the Teijin scandal, investigation, and trial, but many of them were aware of police misconduct and the lack of safeguards to protect human rights.¹

The basic American reform program that...

Tokyo District Court procurators had the authority to suspend prosecution or to indict Teijin stock sale suspects. Without indictments, this business scandal would probably have faded from public view with the conclusion of theJiji shinpōseries. But Procurators Kuroda Etsurō and Biwada Gensuke zealously pursued this investigation, indicting important politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen. What motivated Kuroda and Biwada? Already noted is their disgust with corrupt members of the elite who sought personal gain at the expense of community and national interests. Moreover, Kuroda and Biwada worked at the epicenter of the state’s anticorruption campaign; the Tokyo bureau during the...