A white glove dropped by someone lay on a gently sloping street. Its index finger pointed up, retaining the shape of the hand that had worn it. The image stuck in my mind. I wondered what the ownerless glove might be telling me.

``Akai Tebukuro'' (Red gloves) by Mimei Ogawa is a classic children's story about a poor boy who finds a pair of bright red gloves lying on a snow-covered street and picks them up to give to his ailing older sister. The boy hurries home, hugging this treasure to his chest.

``Tebukuro-wo Kaini'' (Buying mittens) by Nankichi Niimi is another timeless story. A mother fox decides to send her son to a store to buy a pair of mittens. Before sending him off, she uses her magic powers to change her little one's paw into a human hand and tells him: ``At the store, just stick your hand out from under the counter. If the store owner sees you are a fox, he will catch you. Humans are to be feared.''

But the little fox forgets his mother's warning and sticks out a paw. The store owner, however, sells him mittens all the same. When he returns home and tells his mother there was no reason to fear humans, the mother fox wonders aloud to herself: ``Are humans really good?''

In real life, gloves are worn for many reasons other than to keep the hands warm. Figuratively speaking, powerful people in positions of leadership have often worn them.

Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former Kokudo Corp. chairman who led the mammoth Seibu group for years, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of falsifying financial statements on stock holdings and insider trading. According to a former Kokudo executive, the arrest signaled ``the end of despotism.''

While this ``despot'' ruled, it was as if he always wore the invisible gloves of his father, Yasujiro, the founder of the Seibu empire. Perhaps the younger Tsutsumi's hands were guided in keeping with his late father's will.

Tsutsumi was 30 years old and in his prime when he was appointed president by his father. He is now 70, the age at which one is supposed to follow one's desire but fully understand discretion. I hope he will shed his gloves and face his own deeds of indiscretion that prosecutors claim he has committed.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 4(IHT/Asahi: March 5,2005)