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Junichiro Koizumi
*** Shopping-Tip: Junichiro Koizumi
Image:koizumi.jpg frame|Junichiro Koizumi
'''Junichiro Koizumi''' (
Japanese language Japanese: å°?泉純一郎, ''Koizumi Jun'ichirÅ?'', born
January 8,
1942) is the current
Prime Minister of Japan. Since winning leadership of the ruling
Liberal Democratic Party of Japan Liberal Democratic Party in
2001, he has become known as an advocate of reform, focusing on Japan's government debt and the privatization of its postal service. In 2005, he led the LDP to win one of the largest parliamentary majorities in modern Japanese history.
Personal life and education
He was born in
Kanagawa Prefecture on
8 January 1942, to
Junya Koizumi, a director general of the
Defense Agency and a third-generation
Diet of Japan Diet member, and was educated at Yokosuka High School and
Keio University, where he studied
economics. He attended
University College London before returning to Japan in December
1969 on the death of his father.
He married Kayoko Miyamoto in
1978. The marriage ended in
divorce in
1982 and he vowed never to marry again. He has three sons, two of whom live with him (
Kotaro Koizumi and
Shinjiro Koizumi) and have not met their mother since the divorce. The youngest,
Yoshinaga Miyamoto, a student at Keio University, has never met his father and was turned away when he tried to meet Junichiro Koizumi by attending his grandmother's funeral. Koizumi's grandfather was
Matajiro Koizumi. ''See:
Koizumi family.''
He is a fan of
Elvis Presley,
Ennio Morricone,
Richard Wagner and the Japanese Pop band
Morning Musume.
Political life
Image:koizumi with bush.jpg thumb|Koizumi and American President [[George W. Bush meet at the White House on
September 25,
2001]]
After an initial, failed attempt to get elected, Koizumi became a secretary to former Prime Minister
Takeo Fukuda and a member of the Lower House for the 11th Kanagawa Prefecture in December
1972. He was a member of the
Liberal Democratic Party of Japan Liberal Democratic Party, and joined the Fukuda faction. He has since been re-elected ten times. In
1992 he became Minister of Posts and Telecommunications under the government of
Kiichi Miyazawa. He was three times Minister of Health and welfare under the government of
Noboru Takeshita,
Sosuke Uno and
Ryutaro Hashimoto.
He gained his first senior post in
1979 as Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Finance and his first ministerial post in
1988 as Minister of Health and Welfare under
Noboru Takeshita. He had cabinet posts again in
1992 and
1996–
1998. In
1994, with the LDP in opposition, he became part of a new LDP faction,
Shinseiki, made up of younger and more motivated parliamentarians.
He competed for the presidency of the LDP in September
1995 and July
1999, but he gained little support losing decisively to
Ryutaro Hashimoto and then
Keizo Obuchi. In April
2000 Obuchi was replaced by
Yoshiro Mori after falling seriously ill. Koizumi became leader of his party on his third attempt on
April 24,
2001. He had 298 votes, while his closest rival, Ryutaro Hashimoto gained 155 votes. Koizumi won because local chapters were allowed to vote in addition to Diet members. He was made Prime Minister on
April 26,
2001. His coalition secured 78 of 121 seats in the Upper House elections in July.
Koizumi as Prime Minister
Domestic policy
Image:Koizumi manifesto.png thumb|250px|right|LDP manifesto from the [[Japan general election, 2005|2005 election, showcasing Koizumi's contention that "the privatization of Japan Post is the core of our reforms."]]
Within Japan, Koizumi has pushed for new ways to revitalise the moribund economy, aiming to act against bad debts with commercial banks, privatise the postal savings system, and reorganise the factional structure of the LDP. He spoke of the need for a period of painful restructuring in order to improve the future.
To these aims, he first appointed an economist and a commentator,
Heizo Takenaka, to the job of reforming the banking sector. Under their reign, the bad debts of banks have been cut dramatically with the NPL ratio of major banks approaching half the level of 2001. The Japanese economy has been through a slow but steady recovery, and the stock market has dramatically rebounded. The
gross domestic product GDP growth for 2004 is expected to be one of the highest among
G7 nations according to the
IMF and
OECD. Takenaka was appointed as a Postal Reform Minister in
2004 and the privatization of
Japan Post, operator of the country's Postal Savings system, is reaching a critical moment.
Koizumi moved the LDP away from its traditional rural agrarian base toward a more urban, neoliberal core, as Japan's population grows in major cities and declines in less populated areas. In addition to the privatization of Japan Post (which many rural residents fear will reduce their access to basic services such as banking), Koizumi has also slowed down the LDP's heavy subsidies for infrastructure and industrial development in rural areas. These tensions have made Koizumi a controversial but popular figure within his own party and among the Japanese electorate.
Foreign policy
Image:Junichiro Koizumi, Brasilia, September 2004.jpg thumb|Koizumi in [[Brasilia, September 2004]]
Koizumi's most noted foreign policy achievement among Japanese commentators is his close relationship with the
United States and cooperation in the U.S.-led mission in
Iraq. Koizumi approved the expansion of the
Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and in October
2001 they were given greater scope to operate outside of the country. Some of these troops were
Deployment of Japanese troops to Iraq dispatched to Iraq to fulfill non-combat roles.
Among other Asian commentators, Koizumi is most noted for his controversial visits to the
Yasukuni Shrine, starting on
August 13,
2001. He has visited the shrine four times, most recently on
October 16,
2005. Because the shrine also honours Japanese war criminals, these visits have drawn strong condemnation and protests from Japan's neighbors, mainly the
People's Republic of China,
North Korea North and
South Korea, who still hold bitter memories of Japanese occupation. Koizumi claims that he visits the shrine as a private citizen and does not do so in endorsement of any political stance other than respecting the war dead. [http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20060126a1.htm] His father built an airfield in
Kagoshima, which was used for
kamikaze missions during 1944–5, and a cousin died on such a mission, which partly explains his keenness to visit the shrine.
On
August 15,
2005, the sixtieth anniversary of the end of World War II, Koizumi publicly stated that Japan was deeply saddened by the suffering it caused during World War II; an earlier apology was made by Prime Minister
Tomiichi Murayama. However, Koizumi has been criticised for actions that run contrary to apology, by continually defending and repeating his shrine visits, resulting in ever worsening relations with both Koreas and China, and the cancellation of important bilateral meetings in late
2005. His party also cancelled plans for the building of a neutral, non-militaristic shrine that might have stemmed criticisms.
Popularity
Image:Junichiro Koizumi.jpg thumb|Koizumi meets children in [[Sea Island, Georgia, shortly before the 2004 G8 summit]]
Initially Koizumi was an extremely popular leader, with his outspoken nature and colourful past. His nicknames included "Lionheart" and "maverick". All this has taken place despite the strong opposition to his reform plans among the "old guards" within LDP and the bureaucracy. He sacked his popular but volatile Foreign Minister
Makiko Tanaka in January
2002, replacing her with
Yoriko Kawaguchi. He was reelected in
2003 and his popularity surged as the economy recovered. A recent proposal to cut pensions benefits for the fiscal reform, however, turned out to be wildly unpopular, and restricted his administration's approval rating in the upper house election in 2004 to being only marginally better than the opposition
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
In
2005, Koizumi decided to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election since the House of Councilors rejected the contentious
postal privatization bills. This threat was made after the bills to privatize
Japan Post cleared the Lower House in June only by a margin of five votes. Fifty-one LDP members either voted against the bills or abstained. In the 480-seat Lower House, the LDP, with 250 seats, and New Komeito, with 34, hold a comfortable majority. The bills were rejected by the Upper House, with 108 approving and 125 against, with 22 LDP members dissenting.
The secretary general of New
Komeito (a junior coalition partner with Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party) said on
27 July 2005 that his party would entertain forming a coalition government with the Democratic Party of Japan if, in a snap election, the DPJ took a majority in the House of Representatives. [http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050728a2.htm]
The Lower House was dissolved on
August 8,
2005 at 7:04 pm (
Japan Standard Time JST) at a special plenary session under article 7 of the
Constitution of Japan by imperial edict.
Snap elections took place on
September 11,
2005 and were a major victory for Koizumi. Koizumi's popularity rose almost twenty points after he dissolved the Diet, with opinion polls placing the government's approval ratings between 51 and 59 percent. (For details, see:
Japan general election, 2005.)
"Post-Koizumi"
Despite Koizumi's great popularity, he has announced that he will step down from office sometime in
2006, and will not personally choose a successor as many LDP prime ministers have in the past. This has led to widespread media speculation about who will be his successor, an issue popularly referred to as {{nihongo|"post-Koizumi"|�スト�泉|posuto-koizumi}}. Often-cited candidates include Cabinet members
Shinzo Abe,
Taro Aso,
Sadakazu Tanigaki and
Yasuo Fukuda.
Koizumi cabinets
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! First
(April 2001) !! Second
(Sept. 2002) !! Third
(Sept. 2003) !! Fourth
(Sept. 2004) !! Fifth
(
2005-10-31)
|-
!
Chief Cabinet Secretary Secretary
| colspan="3" |
Yasuo Fukuda 4 .html">Hiroyuki Hosoda
| Shinzo Abe
|-
!
Minister of Public Management, Internal Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Internal Affairs
| colspan="2" |
Toranosuke Katayama
| colspan="2" |
Taro Aso ||
Heizo Takenaka 3
|-
!
Minister of Justice Justice
| colspan="2" |
Mayumi Moriyama .html">Daizo Nozawa
| Chieko Nohno ||
Seiken Sugiura
|-
!
Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs
|
Makiko Tanaka 1
| colspan="2" |
Yoriko Kawaguchi ||
Nobutaka Machimura || Taro Aso
|-
!
Minister of Finance Finance
| colspan="2" |
Masajuro Shiokawa
| colspan="3" |
Sadakazu Tanigaki
|-
!
Minister of Education Education
| colspan="2" |
Atsuko Toyama .html">Takeo Kawamura
| Nariaki Nakayama ||
Kenji Kosaka
|-
!
Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japan) Health
| colspan="3" |
Chikara Sakaguchi .html">Hidehisa Otsuji
| Jiro Kawasaki
|-
!
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Agriculture
|
Tsutomu Takebe .html">Tadamori Oshima
2 | Yoshiyuki Kamei ||
Yoshinobu Shimamura ||
Shoichi Nakagawa
|-
!
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (Japan) Economy
| colspan="2" |
Takeo Hiranuma
| colspan="2" | Shoichi Nakagawa ||
Toshihiro Nikai
|-
!
Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Land
| colspan="2" |
Chikage Ogi ||
Nobuteru Ishihara
| colspan="2" |
Kazuo Kitagawa
|-
!
Minister of the Environment Environment
|
Hiroshi Oki 1 ||
Shunichi Suzuki
| colspan="3" |
Yuriko Koike
|-
!
National Public Safety Commission (Japan) Public Safety
| rowspan=2 |
Jin Murai .html">Kiyoko Ono
| rowspan=2 | Yoshitaka Murata || rowspan=2 |
Tetsuo Kutsukake
|-
! Disaster Prevention
|
Yoshitada Konoike ||
Kiichi Inoue
|-
!
Japan Defense Agency Defense
|
Gen Nakatani
| colspan="2" |
Shigeru Ishiba .html">Yoshinori Ono
| Fukushiro Nukaga
|-
! Economic Policy
| Heizo Takenaka
3
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" | Heizo Takenaka || Heizo Takenaka || rowspan=2 |
Kaoru Yosano
|-
! Financial Affairs
|
Hakuo Yanagisawa ||
Tatsuya Ito
|-
! Admin. and Reg. Reform
| colspan="2" | Nobuteru Ishihara ||
Kazuyoshi Kaneko .html">Seiichiro Murakami
| Koki Chuma
|-
! Technology
|
Koji Omi .html">Toshimitsu Motegi
| Yasufumi Tanahashi ||
Iwao Matsuda
|-
! Youth and Gender
| colspan=4 | ||
Kuniko Inoguchi
|}
Notes:
#Makiko Tanaka was fired on
January 29,
2002. Koizumi served as interim foreign minister until
February 1, when he appointed then-environment minister Yoriko Kawaguchi to the post. Koizumi appointed Hiroshi Oki to replace Kawaguchi.
#Oshima resigned on
March 31,
2003 due to a farm-subsidy scandal. He was replaced by Kamei, who was kept in the next reshuffle.
#Takenaka has also held the portfolio of Minister of State for Postal Privatization since the first Koizumi cabinet. He is the only person to serve on Koizumi's cabinet through all five reshuffles.
#Fukuda resigned on
May 7,
2004 and was replaced by Hosoda.
Further reading
*Anderson, Gregory E., [http://www.asianperspective.org/articles/v28n1-g.pdf "Lionheart or Paper Tiger? A First-term Koizumi Retrospective,"] [http://www.asianperspective.org/index.html ''Asian Perspective''] 28:149–182 (March 2004).
*Richard Lloyd Parry, "Enigma behind Koizumi's winning smile", ''Times'' supplement to the
Daily Yomiuri, Sunday, September 18, 2005, p.15
External links
{{Commons|Junichiro Koizumi}}
-
Prime Minister of Japan Official Website (English)
-
Biographical information on Junichiro Koizumi's divorce, ex-wife Kayoko Miyamoto, and their estranged children Yoshinaga Miyamoto, Kotaro Koizumi and Shinjiro Koizumi
{{start box}}
{{succession box | before=
Makiko Tanaka .html">Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)
Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Japan | years=2002 | after=
Yoriko Kawaguchi}}
{{end box}}
{{Japanese prime ministers}}
Category:Prime Ministers of Japan Koizumi, Junichiro
Category:Current national leaders Koizumi
Category:UCL alumni Koizumi, Junichiro
Category:People from Kanagawa Prefecture Koizumi, Junichiro
Category:1942 births Koizumi, Junichiro
Category:Living people Koizumi, Junichiro
br:Junichiro Koizumi
da:Junichiro Koizumi
de:Koizumi JunichirÅ?
et:Jun'ichirÅ? Koizumi
es:Junichiro Koizumi
eo:KOIZUMI Jun'ichiro
fr:Jun'ichirÅ? Koizumi
gl:Junichiro Koizumi
ko:ê³ ì?´ì¦ˆë¯¸ 준ì?´ì¹˜ë¡œ
hi:जूनीचीरो कोईजूमी
io:Junichiro Koizumi
id:Junichiro Koizumi
it:Junichiro Koizumi
he:×’'×•× ×?יצ'ירו קו×?יזומי
mi:Junichiro Koizumi
nl:Junichiro Koizumi
ja:�泉純一郎
no:Junichiro Koizumi
nn:Junichiro Koizumi
pl:Jun'ichirÅ? Koizumi
pt:Junichiro Koizumi
ro:Junichiro Koizumi
sr:Ð?уничиро Коизуми
fi:Junichiro Koizumi
sv:Junichiro Koizumi
ta:ஜூனிசிரோ கொய�ச�மி
th:จุนà¸à¸´à¸Šà¸´à¹‚ร โคะà¸à¸´à¸‹à¸¸à¸¡à¸´
zh:�泉纯一郎
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