The Diet is in turmoil over a fresh scandal. At a session of the Lower House Budget Committee last Thursday, an opposition party member alleged that Mr. Takafumi Horie, the disgraced former chief executive of the Internet company Livedoor, had sent an internal e-mail to subordinates before the Sept. 11 general election, ordering the transfer of 30 million yen to the bank account of a son of Liberal Democratic Party secretary general Tsutomu Takebe. Mr. Horie is under indictment for violation of the Securities and Exchange Law.

That allegation, made by Mr. Hisayasu Nagata of the Democratic Party of Japan, was endorsed by DPJ President Seiji Maehara, who said the charge was based on "highly accurate information." Mr. Takebe, however, has strongly denied the accusation, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called it "totally groundless." Now looming is a showdown between the LDP and DPJ, the nation's two largest parties.

The current regular Diet session, which opened in January, has witnessed a series of scandals, all of which have dealt a blow to both the government and the ruling party. These scandals, not including the latest, are dubbed the "four-piece set," implying that they are all somehow related. This quartet comprises the fabrication of earthquake-resistance design data for condominiums and hotels, the alleged violation by Livedoor of the Securities and Exchange Law, bid-rigging cases involving the Defense Facilities Administration Agency, and the discovery of prohibited parts in a U.S. beef shipment and the subsequent reimposition of a freeze on imports of U.S. beef.