Sadakazu Tanigaki | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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谷垣 禎一 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Official portrait, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| President of the Liberal Democratic Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 28 September 2009 – 26 September 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Vice President | Tadamori Ōshima | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretary-General | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Tarō Asō | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Shinzo Abe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Member of theHouse of Representatives | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 8 August 1983 – 28 September 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Sen'ichi Tanigaki | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Tarō Honda | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Constituency | Kyoto 2nd (1983–1996) Kyoto 5th (1996–2017) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1945-03-07)7 March 1945 (age 80) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Liberal Democratic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parent |
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| Education | Azabu High School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Tokyo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Signature |  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Official website | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sadakazu Tanigaki (谷垣 禎一,Tanigaki Sadakazu; born 7 March 1945) is a Japanese politician who served as a member of theHouse of Representatives from 1983 to 2017, asMinister of Finance from 2003 to 2006, asPresident of the Liberal Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2009 to 2012, as Minister of Justice from 2012 to 2014, and as LDP Secretary-General from 2014 to 2016. He was only the second LDP leader who was not simultaneouslyPrime Minister of Japan. He retired from politics following a spinal cord injury in 2016 that saw him using a wheelchair.
Tanigaki was born inFukuchiyama on 7 March 1945. He attendedAzabu High School. He graduated from the faculty of law at theUniversity of Tokyo in 1974, and worked as a secretary for his father, who was the then minister of education. He went on to pass the Japanese bar examination in 1979, specializing in tax law, and he registered as an attorney in 1982 after completing his legal training.[1]
Tanigaki was prepared for a legal career after close to ten years of study, but his father, who represented the2nd district inKyoto, died in 1983. Tanigaki moved to Kyoto to run for his father's seat. He briefly headed the Science and Technology Agency in 1997. Under the then prime minister Koizumi, he served in a number of positions, including the Financial Reconstruction Commission, the National Public Safety Commission, and ultimately asMinister of Finance from 22 September 2003 to 26 September 2006. Since 2002, Tanigaki has led a minor faction in theLiberal Democratic Party, formerly part of theKōchikai faction, with 11 members in the lower house and 4 in the upper house.[citation needed]
Tanigaki declared his candidacy for the LDP presidency on July 28, 2006, but came in third place in a three-way race againstShinzō Abe andTarō Asō. Tanigaki was viewed as the "moderate" candidate in the race, mainly due to his foreign policy views: unlike Abe and Asō, he stated that he would not continue visits toYasukuni Shrine if he became prime minister, which made him a more attractive candidate among LDP leaders who sought better relations withChinese andKorean leadership. Tanigaki is affiliated to the openlyrevisionist lobbyNippon Kaigi, which advocates visits of Prime Ministers to the controversial shrine.[citation needed]
On 24 September 2007, Tanigaki was named chief policymaker of theLDP by newly elected party presidentYasuo Fukuda.[2] He was subsequently appointed asMinister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on 1 August 2008.[3]
On 28 September 2009, he was elected by his party as LDP leader to replace former prime minister Tarō Asō after theDemocratic Party of Japan achieved a landslide election result in the 2009 general election and took government from the LDP.[4]
In the early period of theDemocratic Party of Japan government, Tanigaki frequently condemned the DPJ for advocating for a rise in the sales taxes by 5 percent, in spite of the enormous, problematic nationaldeficit,[5] and despite his own past calls to increase the tax.[6][7]
To gain a potential legislative LDP-coalition majority, he attempted an unsuccessfulno-confidence motion againstNaoto Kan in June 2011,[8] after refusing Kan's earlier offers of agrand coalition.[9]
In 2012, the LDP under Tanigaki worked with prime ministerYoshihiko Noda of the ruling DPJ to pass an increase in the consumption tax from the current 5% to 8% in April 2014 and 10% in October 2015.[10] He agreed not to introduce a no-confidence motion or a censure motion against Noda, in return for Noda's promise to hold elections "soon."[11] On 28 August 2012, soon after the consumption tax bills were passed through the diet a censure motion was passed by the LDP and theNew Komeito Party against Prime Minister Noda. The opposition parties were to boycott debate in the chamber, meaning that new bills passed in the DPJ-controlled House of Representatives could not be enacted.[12]
Tanigaki had expected to be re-elected as LDP head unopposed in 2012, but former Prime MinisterShinzō Abe and several others suggested that they could run against him.[13] He lost the party election to Abe on 26 September 2012.[14] As a result, he became only the second LDP leader, afterYōhei Kōno (1993–1995), who never served as Prime Minister.
Following the LDP's victory in the2012 general election, Abe appointed his three rivals from the LDP leadership contest to cabinet posts, with Tanigaki serving as Minister of Justice.[15]
Abe appointed Tanigaki to serve as LDP Secretary-General in September 2014, placing Tanigaki in charge of the party's campaign strategy.[16] In this post, Tanigaki continued to have weekly meetings with Abe, in which he provided constructive criticism of Abe's policy agenda. He agreed not to stand against Abe in the 2015 LDP leadership election despite their intense personal rivalry and differing political philosophies.[17]
Tanigakiinjured his spinal cord in a bicycle accident in July 2016, and remained hospitalized as of September 2017.[18] He stayed out of the public eye during his hospitalization, and was rumored to be planning a comeback to politics as of mid-2017,[19] but decided not to run in the2017 general election due to his physical condition.[18] He made his first public appearance after the accident in October 2018, and addressed the Liberal Democratic Party Convention from a wheelchair in February 2019.[20] The LDP approached him to run in the2019 House of Councillors election, but he turned down the request, stating that he would focus on his rehabilitation.[21]
Japan:
Grand Cordon of theOrder of the Rising Sun (2019)| Election | Age | District | Political party | Number of votes | election results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 bye-election | 38 | Kyoto 2nd district | LDP | 125,209 | winning |
| 1983 Japanese general election | 38 | Kyoto 2nd district | LDP | 125,446 | winning |
| 1986 Japanese general election | 41 | Kyoto 2nd district | LDP | 137,705 | winning |
| 1990 Japanese general election | 44 | Kyoto 2nd district | LDP | 153,786 | winning |
| 1993 Japanese general election | 48 | Kyoto 2nd district | LDP | 118,019 | winning |
| 1996 Japanese general election | 51 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 91,146 | winning |
| 2000 Japanese general election | 55 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 109,508 | winning |
| 2003 Japanese general election | 58 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 103,486 | winning |
| 2005 Japanese general election | 60 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 107,792 | winning |
| 2009 Japanese general election | 64 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 87,998 | winning |
| 2012 Japanese general election | 67 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 87,879[22] | winning |
| 2014 Japanese general election | 69 | Kyoto 5th district | LDP | 76,733[23] | winning |
| [24][25] | |||||
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Director General of the Science and Technology Agency 1997–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Financial Reconstruction Commission 2000 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission 2002–2003 | Succeeded by |
| New ministerial post | Minister of State for Food Safety 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 2003–2006 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism 2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Justice 2012–2014 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Policy Research Council, Liberal Democratic Party 2007-2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of the Liberal Democratic Party 2009–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party 2014–2016 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Academics | |
