One reason Sousuke Uno got the Prime Minister's job in the wake of the Recruit influence-peddling scandal was that he was widely regarded as Mr. Clean. Last week that reputation was impugned from an unexpected quarter: a former geisha who claimed to have been his lover. SCOOP: A SCANDAL INVOLVING PRIME MINISTER UNO, shrieked a headline in the weekly magazine Sunday Mainichi. In an interview, the 40-year-old, otherwise unidentified former geisha said Uno paid her about $21,000 during a five-month affair that began in October 1985. She portrayed Uno as bullying and self-aggrandizing.
Traditionally, a public servant's private life is ignored...