"Prime Minister Suga is empty" grandstanding

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At the time, Pharmaceutical Affairs Bureau Director Yasuta Araga had finished his work and turned on the light indicating he had left the office, and was searching around the bureau.

Furthermore, non-career bureaucrats from all ministries have begun to search for the documents. When it comes to the work of bureaucrats, career bureaucrats tend to get all the attention, but the abilities of the non-career bureaucrats who are in charge of the practical work cannot be underestimated. It is customary that ministers, administrative vice-ministers, and chief cabinet secretaries have no say in the personnel decisions of non-career bureaucrats, and the discretion is left to the non-career "bosses." No matter how talented a career bureaucrat is, if he or she behaves in a way that belittles non-career bureaucrats, they will end up with subordinates who can't do their jobs, and will drop out of the race for promotion. Japan's administrative organization can only function with the support of non-career bureaucrats.

At the end of 1995, under the orders of the non-career "bosses" of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the entire ministry began a frantic search for information on drug-induced AIDS. The determination of Minister Morii and Director-General Araga got the non-career workers moving.

However, on January 11, 1996, the new year came and Prime Minister Murayama remove background image resigned, leading to the formation of the Hashimoto Cabinet. Minister Morii resigned and Suga became Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Even after the Minister changed, the search for documents continued. Finally, in February, one of the bureaucrats found the "Gunji File." Many people may have seen the word "AIDS" handwritten in ballpoint pen on the spine in news footage from that time. The file was discovered behind a shelf in the basement storehouse of the Health and Medical Affairs Bureau, far from the Pharmaceutical Affairs Bureau. It had apparently been left behind behind a shelf when the government moved from an old wooden building to the current Joint Government Building No. 5.

This file was a memo that Atsuaki Gunji, the head of the biological products division at the time of the drug damage incident, had compiled privately. The file was not numbered and was clearly not an official document. At the time of its discovery, Vice-Minister Hiroshi Tada and Chief Cabinet Secretary Takehiko Yamaguchi (who died in the 2008 serial attack on the home of the former Vice-Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare) felt that the documents needed to be analyzed and went to report to the newly appointed Minister Suga to bring them to a Cabinet meeting.

However, Minister Suga took the documents and, without even analyzing their contents, released the files at a press conference, saying, "Something that the bureaucrats had been hiding all this time was discovered because I took office." If they wanted to keep it hidden, they didn't need to report it to Minister Suga. It is clear that Minister Suga betrayed the bureaucrats and ran off on a solo play.