Following the arrests of the chief secretary and two former secretaries to Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa on suspicion of violating the Political Funds Control Law, plus public prosecutors' expanded search of construction company offices, more than a few DPJ and Cabinet members now appear intent on countering the prosecution and mass media, whose actions and reports they say are biased and one-sided.
It seems their anger has been stoked all the more by public prosecutors' decision to make the arrests just before a DPJ convention and the start of the regular Diet session. They are concerned that the investigation may damage public trust in the DPJ administration and thereby weaken it. They must take care, though, that their reaction does not backfire. If they go as far as to somehow interfere with the investigation process itself, they would likely be seen as contradicting some of the nation's democratic principles. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's call for self-restraint on the part of DPJ politicians is wise.
Even if the politicians do not actually intervene in the investigative process, there is the political danger that their activities will lead people to conclude that members of the DPJ and the Cabinet are trying to influence the course of the investigation. With Upper House elections scheduled for this summer, both the Hatoyama administration and the DPJ at large would seriously suffer if such a public perception took hold.