"Obuchi was never anything special, but those two were always told they were geniuses from the time they were young, " says Kenji Goto, a veteran political writer for the KyodoNewsService.
Kazuyo Miyashita, 40, her two daughters Misa, 17, and Sayo, 14, and her son Daiki, 11, died at a hospital Saturday night of carbon-monoxide poisoning after their vehicle got buried in the snow, according to Kyodonewsservice.
The proximity of kisha club members to the people they cover creates chummy relationships that make it hard for reporters to write critical stories, says Akira Uozumi, a freelance reporter who worked for 20 years at KyodoNews, a wire service and kisha-club regular.