A place for Ryotei politics -"Kinryu" in Akasaka is closing

Recently the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (日本経済新聞) Electronic Edition reported the following:

料亭政治の舞台、赤坂「金龍」閉店へ

2019/3/20 6:30日本経済新聞　電子版

数多くの政治家が通った赤坂の料亭「金龍」が3月末で閉店します。開業は1928年で、移転や一時閉店を経ながら90年以上にわたって営業してきました。自民党の中曽根派や、山崎拓元副総裁、故・加藤紘一元幹事長、小泉純一郎元首相の3氏の「YKK」らが会合を重ねた「料亭政治」の舞台でした。

昔は複数の派閥の会合が同じ日に入り、鉢合わせしないように部屋に案内するほど、頻繁に政治家の会合が開かれたそうです。小泉氏は今年に入ってからも金龍を訪れたそうです。

密室政治への批判から政治家の料亭離れが徐々に進み、民間企業の接待も少なくなるなど、料亭をとりまく状況は変わりました。

金龍は老朽化した建物の改修などで一時閉店しましたが、2009年にリニューアルオープン。「一見（いちげん）さん」でも楽しめるようにバーカウンターやテーブル席を設けた新業態でお店を続けてきました。閉店を決めた店主の秋葉佳宣さんは「昔は両脇も、前3軒も料亭だった」と振り返ります。

国会がある永田町に近い赤坂では、最盛期は60軒以上の料亭がありましたが、今は数軒になりました。秋葉さんは「長く続いたお店の建物を壊す気になれず、閉店後にどうするかは決めていない」と話しています。

Translation

"Kinryu" (金龍), a Ryotei (料亭) [ a high-class Japanese style restaurant] in Akasaka (赤坂) which many politicians had visited would be closed by the end of March. It was opened in 1928 and had been operating for over 90 years with relocation and temporary closures. It was a venue for “Ryotei Politics” where the LDP Nakasone faction repeatedly met the “YKK”s - the  late Deputy Governor Yamazaki, the late Secretary General Koichi Kato, and the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

It was said that in the old days meetings of politicians from several factions were held on the same day, and they were guided into the rooms so as to avoid bumping into each other. Mr. Koizumi seemed to have also visited Kinryu since the start of this year.

Criticism over closed-room politics had gradually made politicians leaving the Ryotei, Ryotei also decreased entertaining private companies, thus the situation in which Ryotei operated had changed.

Kinryu had been temporarily closed due to renovation of its dilapidated building structure etc. but was reopened in 2009. The restaurant was continued in a new business style with bar counters and table seats so that even “first-time customers” would enjoy. Akinobu Akiba, the Ryotei owner who decided to close the restaurant recalled that " in the old days, both sides of the restaurant and at the front were 3 restaurants".

In Akasaka, which was near Nagata-cho where the Diet was located, there were more than 60 restaurants at its peak, but now there were just a few. Akiba-san said, " I do not care demolishing a long-lasting restaurant building; I have not decided what to do after closing the restaurant."

              So, in future when Japanese script writers of TV dramas or movies try to write about the political activities of the LDP Nakasone faction and the “YKK”s, they should be true to history in that “Kinryu" in Akasaka was once the venue where politics were discussed.