Exemplifying the trend in Japanese political scandals toward the baffling and pathetic rather than the sinister and malign, Shoichi Nakagawa’s inebriated performance at the meeting of G7 finance ministers in Rome in February has nevertheless spawned its own conspiracy theory. Nakagawa’s behavior was so odd—15 minutes after drunkenly dozing off at a press conference, he visited the Vatican Museum, where he crossed a barrier and sat on the famous statue of Laocoön—that some saw it as a concerted attempt to devalue the yen by undermining international confidence in Japan’s financial stewardship.

by Chip Boles