'Honey trap' scandal hits Mizuho Corporate Bank

Weekly magazine Friday recently scooped the intimate relationship between the president of Mizuho Corporate Bank (MCB) and a news reporter from TV Tokyo. Following the scandal, insiders said the affair might have been a “honey trap” by the Chinese government.

Friday reported last week that Hiroshi Sato, 64, the president of MCB, was having an affair with a 32-year-old Chinese-Japanese news reporter. It published a photo of the two kissing on the street.

Sato is a graduate of Tokyo University and joined Daiichi Kogyo Bank in 1966 and became president of MCB which was formed as a merger between Daiichi Kangyo Bank, Fuji Bank and Nihon Kogyo Bank in 2002. The TV reporter was born in Yokohama in a Chinese-Japanese family and joined the network in 1999.

Some officials of the Financial Service Agency (FSA) are suspicious that the affair may have been a honey trap maneuver by the Chinese government. “The reporter has a strong relationship with China. She often attends media receptions organized by the Chinese embassy in Japan. It is likely that Sato leaked some confidential information to her who in turn passed it onto her Chinese masters. Sato is in a position where he has access to valuable information,” says a FSA official.

Officials of TV Tokyo say it’s not clear why the reporter was dating Sato. One of them says, “I heard that she has another young boyfriend, so you have to wonder what she and Sato were doing. Considering her job as a journalist, you can’t criticize her for trying to get information.”

One insider at Mizuho Finical Group, the parent company of MCB, says, “Sato is famous for being fond of Chinese women. He often told his colleagues that her restaurant in Yokohama is good. There were rumors once before about some shay dealings concerning his relationship with another Chinese woman, so many of us were worried that this would be an even bigger scandal.”

A spokesperson for MCB declined to comment on the scandal but said, “We apologize if anyone has been caused trouble, but this is a private mater and we cannot comment further.” (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)

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8 Comments

TokyoGas at 09:30 PM JST - 28th July

Officials of TV Tokyo say it’s not clear why the reporter was dating Sato.

Hmmmm... 64 years old geezer.... 32 years old totty... Yeah, I wonder why he is dating her. hahahaha
buggerlugs at 10:37 PM JST - 28th July

Like the way the Chinese immediatly get blamed for this "honey trap" maybe she just wanted a sugar daddy :D. Of course there was pillow talk, come on he's 64... lot of "Free time", me thinks:) But who says she passed on the info to the Chinese... why would they care about how much debt MCB has and if his obviously caring colleagues pointed out they knew he had a passion for young Chinese women, maybe someone should have put a stop to this ages ago.

Sounds like what happened at another bank but was covered up about 3 years ago...
northlondon at 11:30 PM JST - 28th July

Sato leaked some confidential information to her who in turn passed it onto her Chinese masters

Ha,ha,ha ! What do they think this is, James Bond 007 ?? Chinese masters ? Ah,ha,ha !

Paranoid honey trap conspiracy theory humbug ! Excuse me for being forthright, but he was shagging a younger model and they despise the fact that he preferred Chinese girls to the local choice. It sounds like she is Japanese anyway.
nimbus at 04:02 AM JST - 29th July

What this story implies is that ethnic Chinese or part Chinese, even though born and grew up in Japan, answer to their Chinese masters. This line of thinking can of course be applied to anyone not of full Japanese blood. Talk about being xenophobic. Somewhat ironic that this was the exact kind of thinking that resulted in the Japanese-Americans being sent to camps during WW2.
larguero at 03:34 PM JST - 30th July

insiders said the affair might have been a “honey trap” by the Chinese government

In some way, they had to blame the woman or the foreigners. A shachou can never act wrongly (except if he is young, as Horie).
shayouzoku at 06:09 PM JST - 30th July

where do i sign up to be honey-trapped?
some14some at 06:29 AM JST - 1st August

Read as "Money trap" and it becomes so easy to understand.
hairforest at 05:32 PM JST - 5th August

Yeah, when you dated the girl, you were both 20 and in love, she always said, "...that she loves you and money doesn't matter..." But you break up one day and meet her again, by chance, 15 years later,... Now, she's married to the president of a big company and driving a Ferarri.

All us guys know this story... Chuckle.

94% of all 64-year-old guys would jump on a 32 year-old in a minute, if given half a chance.