The Skeletons in Koizumi Junichiro’s Closet

With the coronavirus deaths beginning to spike in Japan in 2020, former Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro called on the then-current Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to resign over corruption scandals. Abe was embroiled in several scandals prior to his resignation.

The resignation announcement came during an unscheduled press conference just three days after a new parliamentary session had begun and only minutes before opposition leaders were scheduled to question him in Parliament. The questioning came as a result of what became dubbed as the “cherry blossom” scandal. Abe faced allegations that a local association of political supporters – known as a support group in Japan – helped cover dining expenses for his constituents to attend the government’s annual cherry blossom viewing parties in Tokyo between 2015 and 2019, to the tune of ¥23m. The failure to list the expenditure in annual fund reports was viewed as a possible violation of political funding laws.

Abe was also implicated in a school scandal which involved his wife, Akie. She came under scorn when the operator of an ultra-nationalist school testified that she handed him ¥1m saying it was from her husband. Kagoike Yasunori, president of the Moritomo Gakuen group, also said there “probably” was political influence behind it securing a huge discount on public land in Osaka earmarked for its proposed new school. The land was purchased at just one-seventh of the appraised value.

But they often say that those who point the finger usually have a few skeletons of their own in their closet. Koizumi served as the Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006, becoming the sixth-longest serving Prime Minister in Japanese history. He retired from politics in 2009.

However, in 1992, the neoliberal economic reformer became entangled in what came to be known as the “Shimbashi Incident.” On May 12, 1992, thirty-one-year-old Shimbashi Geisha Kohan (real name Okunuki Hiromi) was found dead in her luxurious apartment in Mita, Minato-ku, Tokyo. Her death which was estimated to have occurred around 3:00 pm on Sunday May 10th, was under suspicious circumstances. She was Koizumi’s mistress.

Kohan had practiced for the Azuma Odori, the most famous geisha festival in Ginza, on Saturday May 9th, but she was not seen or heard from on Monday May 11th. Those who were worried about her contacted her mother in Chiba. She hurried to Tokyo and entered the apartment on Tuesday the 12th using her spare key. That was where she found Kohan’s lifeless body.

She had a kimono sash hanging over the door, which made it appear as though she had hung herself. As a result, the matter was officially treated as a suicide. There was no sign of a break-in or a struggle. Despite the mysterious circumstances of her death, an autopsy was never ordered and her body was immediately cremated on Wednesday May 13th.

On the day her body was discovered, Koizumi was conveniently in Hiroshima on a business trip, which many found unusual and unwarranted. Koizumi was under a great deal of stress due to tensions in the Diet over political reforms. The Diet was not in session on Sunday, when Kohan is believed to have died. It is quite possible that Koizumi was with her. Some went as far as to say that Kohan was strangled during sadomasochistic play.

Koizumi did not attend the funeral ceremony.