Honma was found slumped against his window with a cloth wrapped around his neck.

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"So far it is not structural change, " says Masayoshi Honma, an expert on Japanese politics at Tokyo's Seikei University.

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Nor will it say who will run the bank, although Tadayo Honma, a former central-bank director, seems to be in the frame as a respectable front.

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When Marlion Holdings, owned by a Chinese investor group, acquired golf club maker Honma Golf Co. in June, this transaction barely raised a blip on the Finance Ministry radar.

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Last month the country was shocked by the death of Tadayo Honma, a former central bank governor who'd become the CEO of Aozora Bank, successor to the shuttered Nippon Credit Bank.

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