Yoshimi Watanabe | |
|---|---|
渡辺 喜美 | |
 Watanabe in 2010 | |
| Minister of State for Financial Services | |
| In office 27 August 2007 – 2 August 2008 | |
| Prime Minister | Shinzo Abe Yasuo Fukuda |
| Preceded by | Yuji Yamamoto |
| Succeeded by | Toshimitsu Motegi |
| Minister for Administrative Reform | |
| In office 28 December 2006 – 2 August 2008 | |
| Prime Minister | Shinzo Abe Yasuo Fukuda |
| Preceded by | Genichiro Sata |
| Succeeded by | Toshimitsu Motegi |
| Minister of State for Regulatory Reform | |
| In office 28 December 2006 – 27 August 2007 | |
| Prime Minister | Shinzo Abe |
| Preceded by | Genichiro Sata |
| Succeeded by | Fumio Kishida |
| Member of theHouse of Councillors | |
| In office 26 July 2016 – 25 July 2022 | |
| Constituency | National PR |
| Member of theHouse of Representatives | |
| In office 21 October 1996 – 21 November 2014 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Kazuo Yana |
| Constituency | Tochigi 3rd |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-03-17)17 March 1952 (age 73) |
| Party | Independent |
| Other political affiliations | LDP (1995–2009) Your Party (2009–2014) JIP (2016–2019) |
| Alma mater | Waseda University Chuo University |
Yoshimi Watanabe (渡辺 喜美,Watanabe Yoshimi; born 17 March 1952) is a formerJapanesepolitician. He was formerly a member of theLiberal Democratic Party and later the founder ofYour Party, after which he became a member ofNippon Ishin no Kai until 2019 when he then became an independent politician. He was a member of theHouse of Representatives from 1996 to 2014, and returned to theDiet (national legislature) in 2016 as a member of theHouse of Councillors.[1]
Watanabe is a native ofNishinasuno,Nasu District, Tochigi (now part of the city ofNasushiobara) and graduated fromWaseda University andChuo University.
His father isMichio Watanabe, a major political figure first elected to the Diet while Watanabe was in junior high school.
Watanabe developed an interest in politics soon after his father was elected to office, and served as his father's secretary during the elder Watanabe's appointments as Minister of International Trade and Industry and Minister of Foreign Affairs.[2]
Yoshimi Watanabe's nephewMichitaro Watanabe is also a politician (member of the House of Councilors).
Following his father's death in 1995, Watanabe was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in the1996 general election, representing theTochigi 3rd district, a newly created seat in his father's previous constituency inTochigi Prefecture.[2] Watanabe continued to represent the district, having successfully defended it in five subsequent general elections before being defeated in 2014.
He was tapped by Prime MinisterShinzo Abe to lead an administrative reform commission studying the potential for implementing thedōshūsei federal government system in Japan, and served in this capacity from 2006 to 2007.[3] From August 2007 to August 2008, Cabinet of Yasuo Fukuda served as Minister in charge of financial services and Minister in charge of administrative reform, he urged the U.S. government to use public funds to solve the deepeningsubprime mortgage crisis, stating that "if there is a big hole in the bottom of the tub, no matter how much hot water you keep adding, you will never have enough hot water."[4]
He supportedYuriko Koike in the 2008 LDP leadership election, which was ultimately won byTaro Aso.[5]
Watanabe formedYour Party as a splinter from theLiberal Democratic Party prior to the2009 general election. His party ran on a platform of downsizing Japan's vast bureaucracy, but managed to win only five seats in the election, which was a resounding victory for the oppositionDemocratic Party of Japan. The party pushed forward into 2010 with a platform of deregulation and halving thecorporate tax rate.[6] His new party became popular among private investors and upper middle-class professionals.[7]
Your Party won ten seats in theHouse of Councillors in the2010 election, the third-strongest showing behind the LDP and DPJ. Watanabe planned to use his party's popularity to push for fiscal reforms, stating: "Our priority is anti-deflation legislation because Japan's economy faces the risk of a double-dip recession. We want to revise the BOJ law so the central bank and the government can agree on a goal of 2 percent inflation within two to three years."[8] Watanabe was chosen as the Japanese public's most preferred candidate for prime minister in a July 2010 poll.[9]
In January 2012, Watanabe announced that Your Party would join forces with Osaka governorToru Hashimoto's political groupOsaka Ishin-no-kai, and praised Hashimoto's economic reform efforts in Osaka.[10] He announced that Your Party would sever ties with Hashimoto'sJapan Restoration Party in May 2013 after Hashimoto made controversial comments regardingcomfort women being a necessary part of World War II and suggesting that American servicemen use the Japanese sex industry to keep their urges under control.[11]
Watanabe opposed the appointment ofHaruhiko Kuroda as president of theBank of Japan, saying that he would prefer to see a president come from a background other than the Ministry of Finance; he instead supportedHeizo Takenaka for the position.[12]
In April 2014, Watanabe was found to have accepted a loan of 800 million yen from the chairman of a cosmetics company without disclosing it as a political donation. While insisting that the loan was used for personal purposes and not for political activities, he resigned as president of Your Party.[13] The party commissioned an investigation by an outside attorney and CPA, who found that Watanabe had paid interest on the loan and had mainly used the funds for paying credit card bills for himself and his wife. While they found no violation of campaign finance laws, they discovered that Watanabe had also borrowed money from five other parties totaling 615 million yen.[14]
In the 2014 House of Representatives election, Watanabe lost hisTochigi 3 seat as an independent to Liberal DemocratKazuo Yana by more than 11.000 votes.[15] In the 2016 House of Councillors election,Initiatives from Osaka announced that he would be nominated in the (nationwide) proportional district.[16] He won a seat in the election, stating after the victory that "the story of my 'revenge' starts today. I would like to restart from scratch and work hard."[1]
Affiliated to the openlyrevisionist lobbyNippon Kaigi,[17] Watanabe is a member of the followingright-wing groups in the Diet:
Watanabe gave the following answers to the questionnaire submitted by Mainichi to parliamentarians in 2014:[18]
He appears in"Takeshi-no-TV-tackle", a humorous political discussion show hosted by comedianTakeshi Kitano.
Watanabe is married with three children.[2]
| House of Representatives (Japan) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Seat created | Representative forTochigi's 3rd District 1996 – 2014 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Financial Services and Administrative Reform of Japan 2007–2008 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of State for Regulatory Reform of Japan 2006–2007 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |
