Morihiro Hosokawa | |
|---|---|
細川 護熙 | |
 Official portrait, 1993 | |
| Prime Minister of Japan | |
| In office 9 August 1993 – 28 April 1994 | |
| Monarch | Akihito |
| Preceded by | Kiichi Miyazawa |
| Succeeded by | Tsutomu Hata |
| Leader of the New Party | |
| In office 22 May 1992 – 9 December 1994 | |
| Preceded by | Party Established |
| Succeeded by | Party Abolished |
| Governor ofKumamoto Prefecture | |
| In office 11 February 1983 – 10 February 1991 | |
| Preceded by | Issei Sawada |
| Succeeded by | Joji Fukushima |
| Member of theHouse of Representatives for Kumamoto 1st district[a] | |
| In office 18 July 1993 – 7 May 1998 | |
| Preceded by | Shōichi Tanaka |
| Succeeded by | Eiichi Iwashita |
| Member of theHouse of Councillors | |
| In office 26 July 1992 – 18 July 1993 | |
| Constituency | National PR |
| In office 10 July 1977 – 11 February 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Moriyoshi Morinaka |
| Succeeded by | Masaru Urata |
| Constituency | Kumamoto at-large |
| In office 4 July 1971 – 10 July 1977 | |
| Constituency | National district |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1938-01-14)14 January 1938 (age 87) Tokyo,Empire of Japan |
| Political party | DPJ (1998–2016) |
| Other political affiliations | LDP (until 1992) JNP (1992–1994) NFP (1994–1997) From Five (1997–1998) GGP (1998) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 (includingMorimitsu) |
| Relatives | Tadateru Konoe (brother) |
| Alma mater | Sophia University |
| Signature |  |
Morihiro Hosokawa (細川 護煕,Hosokawa Morihiro, born 14 January 1938) is a Japanese politician who served asprime minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994. He led an eight-partycoalition government which was the first Japanese government not headed by aLiberal Democratic Party (LDP) premier since 1955.
Born to a prominent family inKumamoto Prefecture, Hosokawa is a grandson of PrinceFumimaro Konoe. He graduated fromSophia University before working at theAsahi Shimbun newspaper, and was elected to theNational Diet in 1971 before leaving to serve as governor of his home prefecture from 1983 to 1991. In 1992, Hosokawa left the LDP to found the reformistJapan New Party, which won 35 seats in the1993 general election. The LDP lost its governing majority, which was replaced by an eight-party coalition led by Hosokawa. He initiated electoral reforms beforeTsutomu Hata'sJapan Renewal Party took over leadership of the coalition in 1994. Hosokawa joined theNew Frontier Party in 1996 andDemocratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in 1998 before retiring from politics. He unsuccessfully ran forGovernor of Tokyo in 2014.[1] Since 2005, he has been the head of theKumamoto-Hosokawa clan, one of Japan's former noble families.
Morihiro Hosokawa was born in Tokyo as the eldest grandson ofMoritatsu, 3rd Marquess Hosokawa, and head of theHosokawa clan. His maternal grandfather is the former prime minister PrinceFumimaro Konoe (1937–1939, 1940–1941).[2] As a great-great-grandson ofPrince Kuni Asahiko, he is a third cousin of the present emperor,Naruhito.[3] He is also a descendant of Christian heroineGracia Hosokawa.[4]
Hosokawa received hisLL.B. degree fromSophia University in 1961. After working for the newspaperAsahi Shimbun as journalist for five years, he made an unsuccessful run in the1969 general election. He was elected to theHouse of Councillors of Japan as an LDP representative ofKumamoto Prefecture in 1971, with his campaign funded by party bossKakuei Tanaka.[2]
After serving two terms in theNational Diet, Hosokawa left in 1983 to become the governor of Kumamoto, where he served until 1991. During his term as governor, he complained about the powerful bureaucracy of the central government. Hosokawa pursued an aggressive economic policy and strengthened environmental laws.[5] In May 1992, an ongoing campaign contribution scandal inspired him to form the reformistJapan New Party (JNP), which won four seats (one of which Hosokawa assumed) in the1992 House of Councillors election.[2]
In theJuly 1993 general election, in a change very few had foreseen even a year earlier, the LDP lost its majority in the Diet for the first time in thirty-eight years, winning only 223 out of 511 seats in theHouse of Representatives. The previous LDP government ofKiichi Miyazawa was replaced by an eight-partycoalition government which promised a series of social, political, and economic reforms. Excluding theJCP, the coalition was backed by all of the former opposition parties, which included the newly formed JNP, theJapan Socialist Party, theJapan Renewal Party (Shinseito),Komeito, theDemocratic Socialist Party, theSocialist Democratic Federation, theRENGO and theNew Party Sakigake, who together controlled 243 seats in the House of Representatives. Hosokawa, one of the major voices in forming the coalition, was chosen as the new Prime Minister.
Walter Mondale, then the US ambassador to Japan, characterized Hosokawa as having a "Kennedy-esque" ability to focus on ideals; nonetheless, Hosokawa's coalition had no common ideas other than their opposition to the LDP, which undermined Hosokawa throughout his term as prime minister. He was also at odds with Japan's bureaucracy, which he sought to reform after decades of bureaucratic entrenchment under the LDP.[6]
Hosokawa made several unprecedented moves toward atonement with Japan's Asian neighbors during his term as prime minister. In his first news conference in office, he made an unprecedented statement acknowledging that Japan waged a war of aggression inWorld War II.
Hosokawa later said: "You can obviously define 'aggression' in any number of ways, depending on context. But if you have any common sense, you just cannot say in good conscience that Japan was not the aggressor when Japan did in fact cause tremendous anguish and loss of life in China, Korea and Southeast Asian nations in order to protect its own interests. I knew my opinion was going to invite heated controversy."[7]
On 6 November 1993, he visitedSouth Korea, where he had a summit with PresidentKim Young-sam inGyeongju and again offered a clear apology to the Korean people for Japan's actions in the war, statements which were widely applauded in Korea. Hosokawa viewed theJapanese annexation of Korea as wrong and rejected the right-wing view in Japan that it was with Korea's consent and was beneficial to Korea.[7] On 19 March 1994, he visitedChina, and the two governments signed an agreement of cooperation in environmental protection.
In May 1994, right-wing extremist Masakatsu Nozoe fired a gunshot into the ceiling of a Tokyo hotel where Hosokawa was giving a speech, in apparent protest at Hosokawa's statements.[8]
Hosokawa's acts toward China and Korea inspired Russian presidentBoris Yeltsin to apologize to Hosokawa for the Soviet detention of Japanese prisoners of war in Siberia. Hosokawa later speculated that if both men had remained in office longerRussian-Japanese relations would have improved significantly.[7] Hosokawa also had a good personal relationship withBill Clinton, but trade disputes between Japan and the United States dominatedUS-Japan relations during Hosokawa's tenure.[6]
The Hosokawa government pushed for changes to Japanese election laws intended to fight political corruption, including elimination of corporate political donations to individual candidates and a redrawing of the electoral system, both intended to prevent the LDP from continuing to employ its past electoral practices. After an extended legislative fight, the LDP was able to force several concessions to maintain their advantage, retaining corporate political donations with a cap, while pushing back on some more radical changes to the electoral map and ensuring that most candidates would keep essentially the same seats in the next election.[9] These compromises had a negative impact on the public approval of the Hosokawa coalition.[10]
A law of December 1993 amending the Basic Law on measures for physically and mentally disabled persons of 1970 aimed to promote the independence of disabled people and their participation in activities in any field such as culture, the economy, and community affairs. Amendments made to regulations under the Industrial Safety and Health Law of 1972 on 30 March 1994 included accidents involving the collapsing of cranes and breaking of wires that needed to be reported to the authorities.[11] On 1 April 1994, a 40-hour workweek was introduced.[12]
Hosokawa also enacted cuts in income and resident taxes, intended to help Japan out of the recession that had followed theJapanese asset price bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s. After pressure from the finance ministry, the government compensated for these cuts by announcing an increase in theconsumption tax from 3% to 7%, effective from 1997. The move was controversial within the cabinet, asIchiro Ozawa favored a 10% rate while theJapan Socialist Party would not agree to an increase. Hosokawa announced the increase but retracted the announcement the next day, leaving the tax at 3%. The government's response to the issue weakened its hold on power and was said to hasten its demise. The tax was eventually increased to 5% in 1997 by LDP Prime MinisterRyutaro Hashimoto.[13][14][15]
Hosokawa was forced to resign in April 1994 after it came to light that he had accepted a 100-million-yen loan from a trucking company previously accused of bribery and links to organized crime. Amid allegations of bribery, Hosokawa argued that the money was a loan and produced a receipt to show that he had paid it back; LDP members passed around a copy remarking that it looked like a fake.[citation needed] Although Hosokawa still had high public approval at the time, opinion was growing that he could not meet the expectations set at the start of his term.[16]
Hosokawa's resignation was abrupt and led to a number of frenzied meetings aimed at saving the coalition, which was torn between the rival camps ofIchiro Ozawa andMasayoshi Takemura.[17] After his resignation, the coalition was taken over by the Shinseito presidentTsutomu Hata.
TheHosokawa cabinet was a product of his multi-party coalition but was dominated by individuals viewed as conservatives. Its key ministers were members of theShinseito party led byIchiro Ozawa. Hosokawa's ownJapan New Party had no other representatives in the cabinet.[18]
| Chief Cabinet Secretary | Masayoshi Takemura (Sakigake) |
|---|---|
| Foreign Affairs | Tsutomu Hata (Shinseito) |
| Justice | Akira Mikazuki (non-affiliated) |
| Finance | Hirohisa Fujii (Shinseito) |
| Education | Yoko Akamatsu (non-affiliated) |
| Health and Welfare | Keigo Ouchi (Democratic Socialist) |
| Labor | Chikara Sakaguchi (Komeito) |
| Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries | Eijiro Hata (Shinseito) |
| International Trade and Industry | Hiroshi Kumagai (Shinseito) |
| Transport | Shigeru Ito (Socialist) |
| Construction | Kozo Igarashi (Socialist) |
| Home Affairs andNational Public Safety Commission | Kanju Sato (Socialist) |
| Posts and Telecommunications | Takenori Kanzaki (Komeito) |
| Management and Coordination Agency | Koshiro Ishida (Komeito) |
| Japan Defense Agency | Hiroyoshi Nakanishi (Shinseito) until 1 December 1993 Kazuo Aichi (Shinseito) after 2 December 1993 |
| Hokkaido andOkinawa Development,National Land Agency | Kosuke Uehara (Socialist) |
| Economic Planning Agency | Manae Kubota (Socialist) |
| Environment | Wakako Hironaka (Komeito) |
| Council for Science and Technology Policy | Satsuki Eda (Democratic Socialist) |
| Minister of State | Sadao Yamahana (Socialist) |
Hosokawa joined theNew Frontier Party in 1994 but, following further disputes withIchiro Ozawa, left in 1997 with four other legislators who formed the short-livedFrom Five party. In 1998, From Five merged into theGood Governance Party, which itself merged into theDemocratic Party of Japan (DPJ) later that year.
After the LDP returned to power in 1994, Hosokawa teamed up withJunichiro Koizumi of the LDP andShusei Tanaka ofNew Party Sakigake in a strategic dialogue across party lines regarding Japan becoming a permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Council. Although this idea was not popular within the LDP and never came to fruition, Hosokawa and Koizumi maintained a close working relationship in subsequent years. Hosokawa tacitly served as Koizumi's personal envoy to China at times of strainedSino-Japanese relations during Koizumi's term as prime minister from 2001 to 2006.[19]
Hosokawa retired from politics in 1998 at the age of 60. In his retirement, he took uppottery, studying intensively for 18 months under pottery masterShiro Tsujimura.[20] Hosokawa's pottery has been exhibited inJapan andEurope.[21] He uses his pottery fortea ceremonies at a tea house originally constructed for a visit byJacques Chirac, which was cancelled due to the outbreak of theIraq War.[22] He is also a special consultant toThe Japan Times. Upon his father's death in 2005, Hosokawa succeeded him as the head of the Hosokawa family.
In 2014, at the age of 75, Hosokawa was approached by the DPJ to run in theTokyo gubernatorial election. Although Hosokawa initially turned down their request, former Prime MinisterJunichiro Koizumi encouraged him to run for the primary purpose of gathering public opposition to Prime MinisterShinzō Abe's pro-nuclear policies, and Hosokawa again considered running for the office. This was initially perceived as a blow toYōichi Masuzoe, the LDP-supported candidate who was also supported by elements within the DPJ and who had previously been considered the lone front-runner in the race;[23] the race between Masuzoe and Hosokawa became widely dubbed as a "proxy contest" between Abe and Koizumi.[24]
Hosokawa announced his candidacy alongside Koizumi on January 14.[25] His campaign was supported by several key members of his 1993-94 coalition:Banri Kaieda andIchirō Ozawa, who had since become the heads of theDemocratic Party of Japan andPeople's Life Party respectively, threw their support behind Hosokawa, whileShusei Tanaka andYoriko Madoka were enlisted as his policy advisors.[26]
During his campaign, Hosokawa criticized the Abe government's nuclear policy, stating: "Tokyo is shoving nuclear power plants and nuclear waste to other regions, while enjoying the convenience (of electricity) as a big consumer." He also criticized Abe's foreign policy in the run-up to the2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, questioning "whether pugnacious diplomacy will help the festival of peace to be held smoothly."[27]
Hosokawa failed to gain momentum and trailed behind Masuzoe in the polls through the final week of the campaign, with only a 30–40% support rating within the DPJ and PLP and particularly low support among women.[28] Masuzoe was declared the winner in exit polls shortly after voting ended on February 9, but Hosokawa vowed to continue anti-nuclear advocacy.[29]
Hosokawa lives inYugawara, Kanagawa.[22] His wife, Kayoko Hosokawa, to whom he has been married since 23 October 1971, served as honorary chair of the Special Olympics Nippon Foundation and headed NPOs devoted to providing vaccines to children in developing nations and helping the intellectually disabled.[30] He and Kayoko have three children:Morimitsu, Satoko and Yūko.[31]
事実上、「安倍ｖｓ小泉」の代理戦争といわれた都知事選だが、舛添氏を支援する自民党幹部は「何とか勝てそうだ」と顔をほころばせた。
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Issei Sawada | Governor ofKumamoto Prefecture 1983–1991 | Succeeded by Jōji Fukushima |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Japan 1993–1994 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | Chairperson of the G7 1993 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| New title | Principal ofTohoku University of Art and Design 2011–2014 | Vacant |
| Principal ofKyoto University of Art and Design 2011–2014 | Succeeded by Shōchoku Tokuyama | |
| Cultural offices | ||
| Preceded by Morisada Hosokawa | Chief Director of theEisei Bunko Museum 2005–present | Incumbent |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by Akinori Mineyama | Youngest member of theHouse of Councillors of Japan 1971–1972 | Succeeded by Jūrō Saitō |
| Empire of Japan (1868–1947) |
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| State of Japan (1947–present) |
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