The Liberal Democratic Party's largest faction, formerly headed by ex-Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, is embroiled in a major scandal. Hashimoto, who allegedly received a check for 100 million yen from the political arm of the Japan Dental Association (JDA) in 2001, resigned about a month ago. Tokyo prosecutors have arrested the faction's treasurer on charges of submitting a false campaign finance report and searched the group's office for evidence.

The former Hashimoto group is an offshoot of the Tanaka faction (founded by the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka), that dominated Japanese politics in the '70s and '80s. The group's decline is clouding the future of the Liberal Democratic Party, which has long maintained cozy ties with the bureaucracy and business. Hard-hitting internal reform is the only way to revive a party long accustomed to the politics of pork.

The JDA provides a typical example of "triangular collusion" among the LDP, bureaucracy and industry. Its former chairman is charged with bribing members of a government panel on medical insurance in an attempt to increase payments for dental services. In April, five men were arrested on bribery charges.