Reports that prosecutors do not plan to indict former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka for allegedly misusing the salary of her state-funded secretary have set off a political firestorm not only in her home area but in Tokyo's political center of Nagatacho.
Tanaka's supporters in the No. 5 electoral district in Niigata Prefecture say she will definitely win if she runs in the House of Representatives election that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may call in the fall after dissolving the Lower House.
However, members of the Liberal Democratic Party, which suspended her membership last year after she faced a criminal complaint, have given the reports a cool response.