Japan's Kingmaker Bids to Seize the Crown

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BY YUKA HAYASHI AND DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

TOKYO—Ichiro Ozawa is Japan's longtime leading political power broker, who last year engineered an upset of the party that ruled nearly uninterrupted for half a century. His peers call him the "god of elections." But he's a god more feared than loved.

Gruff and blunt, wielding influence largely out of sight and portrayed in the media as a dark kingmaker, he is to many Japanese a despised figure. It hardly helps Mr. Ozawa's image that he is enmeshed in a campaign-finance investigation.

And yet, in a showdown election on Tuesday, Mr. Ozawa is making a credible run to overthrow a ...

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