The person who said that all politics is local probably wasn't thinking about Japan, where regional officials don't seem to have much purpose in life beyond trying to cadge money from Tokyo.

This political fact of life is at the heart of the current catfight in Nagano. A lot of lip service on both sides of the battle between former Gov. Yasuo Tanaka and the Nagano Prefectural Assembly has been given to "the interests of Nagano's citizens," but there are interests and then there are Interests. According to the assembly, the only way to solve the prefecture's intractable fiscal problems is to carry out more public works projects. But after studying the matter for almost two years, Tanaka concluded that two already approved dams were unnecessary and he canceled them.

When Tanaka officially made the cancellation announcement on June 25, it was barely covered by the national media. Two days later, the mayor of Nagano City, where one of the dams would have been built, made a publicity stop at the national agency in charge of dams "on behalf of the people."