From the Cow-Walk to the Brawl

Ever since its founding 73 years ago, the Japanese Diet has had a hard time distinguishing between Robert's Rules of Order and those of the Marquis of Queensberry. Just as the typhoons come to Japan in September, and the cherry blossoms in April, the parliamentary brawling season arrives in June, filling the Diet with the sound of crashing fists and strangled curses. This year the season arrived on schedule.

More Than Secretaries. Before World War II, brawling was a common practice among hot-blooded delegates who, in the samurai tradition, were really hankering for medieval days when political differences were settled with the sword. Throughout the Diet building, the major conservative parties stationed flying squads of young toughs, known ironically as ingaidan (lobbyists), always ready for heckling or fighting. During the postwar years, the U.S. tried to enforce good behavior, but the quiet spell ended with the lifting of the Occupation. Though the ingaidan were gone, Diet members hired heavy-fisted brawlers as "secretaries."

A big riot in June 1954 injured some 50 persons, forced Liberal Premier Shigeru Yoshida to cancel a long-planned trip to the U.S. and apologize to the Emperor. Survivors of that fight recall the arrival of an opposition leader, Bu-kichi ("Big Badger") Miki, who vehemently objected to Western dress and always wore a kimono. He showed up for the fight dressed in army fatigues and combat boots, explained to colleagues that "you can't kick with a kimono on, you know."

Since then, Japan's emergent Socialists have introduced a whole new array of techniques, many more or less nonviolent. The most popular is ushi aruki, or cow-walking. Realizing that they cannot block the overwhelming conservative majority, the Socialists do their best to slow business to a standstill. In balloting sessions, each Socialist member gets up slowly as his name is called, shuffles toward the rostrum with the shortest steps possible. Where it takes 230 conservatives only 15 minutes to vote, 120 Socialists consume as much as an hour and a half. Cow-walking is combined with sitdown strikes in Diet corridors, deliberate traffic jams, boycotts, and picketing to prevent the Speaker from taking his seat. Through these tactics, the Socialists force all-night sessions, hoping that the worn-out government men will have to give in somewhere along the line.

Not Enough Bodies. This year, with a backlog of 66 bills still stalled in committee, Premier Ikeda ordered his men to push them through before the Diet session closes July 6. When the government party recently used its majority to force a vote on a controversial relief-law revision, cow-walking was no longer enough. Fists and ashtrays started to fly. Battling lawmakers shouted: "Respect parliamentary procedures!" The brawling later spread to the cabinet committee, where five bills were stalled. Socialists massed around the committee-room door to prevent Chairman Tadanori Nagayama from entering.

A flying wedge of burly conservative "secretaries" smashed through, carrying the aging, anemia-weakened chairman in with them. As the vote was hurriedly taken, Socialists screamed "Fascist dictatorship!" and charged. In the melee, Chairman Nagayama disappeared, was rescued ten minutes later by Diet guards who found him bruised and bleeding on the floor. He was rushed to a hospital.

"We won't have enough bodies to go around if people get injured every time a controversial bill comes up," said Yu-taro Takeyama, head of the government party's strategy committee. "We will just have to appoint stronger men to committee chairmanships, men who won't get put out of action every time the going gets rough."

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