Rumored illegitimate child of ex-PM Kan shadows Akasaka club busts

On May 1, officers from the Nishi Arai Police Station announced the bust of a high-profile Korean hostess club in Tokyo’s Akasaka entertainment district for violating immigration control laws.

Officers arrested the manager of high-end club New Bon Jou, 64-year-old Kang Pong-ju, on charges of employing two Korean hostesses, both 39 years of age, who were residing in Japan in short-term visas.

According to an interview conducted with an investigator by weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa (June 19), persistent rumors that former Prime Minister Naoto Kan fathered an illegitimate child with a hostess in Akasaka are resurfacing as clubs in Akasaka are under scrutiny.

“Monthly sales at New Bong Jou average 79 million yen,” says an informed source. “So it attracts top customers. The head of a big-name game maker goes there three or four times a week. There are rumblings that the mama (Kang) is his mistress.”

Five years ago, a crackdown on Akasaka clubs began in earnest, with 25 women discovered to have been working on short-term visas at New Bong Jou. “The club wound up changing its name from Bong Jou to New Bong Jou,” says a local club employee. “It was at this time that rumors of an affair between Kan and a hostess began to surface.”

The whispers of an affair changed to that of the existence of an illegitimate child one year later. At that time, Kan, a member of the Democratic Party of Japan who served as prime minister between June of 2010 and August of 2011, was engaged in a fierce power struggle with the Liberal Democratic Party.

Revelations of such an offspring would have proved to be very tantalizing for the LDP, but no confirmed information ever surfaced. (Some postulated that the hostess in question worked at a Korean club in Akasaka other than New Bong Jou.)

In recent months, there has been a resurgence in activity by law enforcement. Officers cited two male managers at New Bong Jou for immigration violations in March. Then, three months later, officers arrested the manager of Club Lovely, a posh spot frequented sports stars, executives from companies listed on the Nikkei index and government workers, on the same charges.

“But with Kan’s resignation (in August of 2011) to take responsibility for the nuclear problem (at Fukushuma), the issue of the child was left hazy,” says a reporter for an evening sports paper.

What remains to be seen, says Shukan Jitsuwa, is whether the captivation Korean women of Akasaka hold over men in power can endure.

Source: “Kan moto sori no koibito setsu mo atta Akasaka kankoku kurabu no onna bosu ga shuchu tekihatsu de haigyo,” Shukan Jitsuwa (June 19)