Japan's new centre-left leaders are going to war with the country's powerful prosecutors over a probe into a funding scandal they say is aimed at undermining their administration. The target of the investigation is the ruling party heavyweight many observers consider more powerful than the prime minister, secretary general Ichiro Ozawa, often dubbed the government's "shadow shogun." Prosecutors have raided his offices and arrested three of his former or current aides to investigate whether he took millions of dollars in bribes from construction firms and invested the money in Tokyo property.