The guilty verdict handed down by the Tokyo District Court to Hiromasa Ezoe, the central figure in the Recruit scandal, is a reminder that money holds potent power in politics. The scandal, which came to light in 1988, exposed a series of lucrative but shady stock deals involving influential politicians, bureaucrats and business executives. The ruling, which came 13 years after the trial began, points up another long-standing problem: the inordinately long period of time required to conclude a criminal case.

On Tuesday, Ezoe, the former founder and chairman of Recruit Co., an information conglomerate, was given a suspended sentence of three years in prison. According to the ruling, he requested favors in connection with the recruiting of prospective college graduates from several heavyweights in political, bureaucratic and business circles, including former Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Fujinami. In return for their efforts, he sold them large numbers of unlisted shares in a Recruit subsidiary. With the affiliate scheduled to go public, those shares were considered certain to fetch higher prices after the listing.

"By gaining the favor of politicians and bureaucrats as well as public companies," the ruling said, "(Ezoe) tried to bring benefits to Recruit and its affiliates in terms of political, administrative and other operations." All this was summed up, appropriately, as a "large-scale bribery scandal," suggesting that it occurred in an extensive climate of distributive politics.