In late April, about a month before Naoto Kan took over as prime minister from Yukio Hatoyama, a hand-written note was taped to the intercom outside Kan's home in the Kichijoji district of Tokyo. It read, "No press meetings," and was signed "Kan," but it wasn't written by the current Democratic Party of Japan head. It was written by his wife, Nobuko, who, according to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho, was angry because a reporter leaked to a colleague an off-the-record comment her husband made while drunk.

In order to appreciate the comment, "(Ichiro) Ozawa is a leaf," you probably had to be there, but the note's implication, that reporters regularly hung out at Kan's house drinking and discussing politics, has a deeper meaning in light of comments recently made by retired Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hiromu Nonaka, who was chief Cabinet secretary for Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi from July 1998 to Oct. 1999.

During a speech he gave in Nara on April 23 Nonaka discussed the controversial kanbo hoshohi (secretariat rewards), more commonly referred to as kimitsuhi (secret funds). This money, which the most recent budget set at ¥1.46 billion, is not subject to scrutiny or audit. The chief Cabinet secretary, who controls it, doesn't even have to get receipts. It's for him to spend as he sees fit.