Ikeda Hayato

Ikeda Hayato, 1962

Ikeda Hayato ( Japanese 池田 勇 人 ; * December 3, 1899 in Takehara , Hiroshima Prefecture ; † August 13, 1965 ) was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party LDP (Jiyūminshutō) , who, among other things, from June 19, 1960 to November 9 1964 was the 38th Prime Minister of Japan .

Life

Government Official, MP and Minister

After attending school, Ikeda Hayato graduated from the Law Faculty of the Imperial University of Kyoto and began his professional career as an employee in the Ministry of Finance after graduating in 1925 . After being temporarily on leave due to illness, he returned to the Ministry of Finance and was appointed director of the tax department in 1945 and in 1947 as deputy finance minister for administrative matters by then Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru .

Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru with members of the Japanese delegation at the signing of the San Francisco Peace Accords on September 8, 1951

In the elections on January 23, 1949 Ikeda was for the Democratic Liberal Party (Minshu-Jiyū-tō) to a member of the House of Commons ( Shūgiin ) , to which he belonged until his death as a representative of Hiroshima Prefecture. Immediately after the election, Prime Minister Yoshida appointed him as Finance Minister (Ōkura-daijin) in his third cabinet on February 16, 1949 and held this ministerial office until October 30, 1952. In this role, his so-called Nine Principles of Economic Stability after the end of the World War II contributed significantly to strengthening the economy by reducing inflation . He developed this strong deflationary policy together with the government advisor and banker Joseph Dodge , who was sent by the US occupation forces . During his tenure as finance minister, he was also part of the Japanese delegation when the peace treaty of San Francisco was signed on September 8, 1951, through which Japan regained full sovereignty on the main Japanese islands and other islands and thus officially ended the occupation . At the same time he acted in this period between February 17 and April 11, 1950 for the first time as Minister for International Trade and Industry (Tsūshō-sangyō-daijin) .

In the fourth Yoshida cabinet , Ikeda Hayato again took over the post of Minister for International Trade and Industry and Director of the Economic Council on October 30, 1952, but had to resign after a criticized speech in Parliament on November 29, 1952 and was then replaced by Ogasawara Sankurō . In 1953 he took over from Fudayū Kogure as chairman of the influential Political Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party LDP (Jiyūminshutō) and exercised this function until his replacement by Mizuta Mikio in 1954. he himself then succeeded Satō Eisaku as general secretary of the LDP, but was replaced a short time later by Ishii Mitsujirō . On December 23, 1956, he again took over the post of finance minister in the Ishibashi cabinet and held this office until July 10, 1957 in the first Kishi cabinet .

Chairman of the LDP and Prime Minister

Prime Minister Ikeda Hayato in conversation with US President John F. Kennedy (1961)

Ikeda Hayato's grave in Aoyama Cemetery

In 1957 Ikeda Hayato took over the post as chairman of the Kōchikai , now the oldest and largest faction of the LDP, and held this position until his death in 1965, after which Shigesaburō Maeo was his successor. In the second Kishi cabinet he was first minister without portfolio between June 12 and December 10, 1958 and then, after a cabinet reshuffle, from June 18, 1959 to July 19, 1960, he was again Minister for International Trade and Industry.

After Kishi Nobusuke resigned as chairman of the LDP on July 14, 1960 due to large demonstrations and student protests against the treaty on mutual cooperation and security between Japan and the United States , Ikeda ran for the office of party chairman along with several other politicians. From the first ballot he was the first to emerge with 246 votes ahead of Ishii Mitsujirō (196 votes), Fujiyama Aiichirō (49 votes), Matsumura Kenzō (5 votes), Ōno Bamboku (1 vote) and Satō Eisaku (1 vote) as the first to miss however the necessary majority. In the following second ballot he won a clear majority with 302 votes in front of Ishii Mitsujirō (194 votes) and thus became the new chairman of the LDP.

After Kishi's resignation as prime minister, he also took over this office on July 19, 1960. During his tenure as prime minister he pursued a policy for faster economic growth and shortly after taking office he presented an income doubling plan that provided for a doubling of the gross national product as national income by 1969 . To this end, public sector spending should be increased and taxes reduced. At the same time, the plan envisaged measures designed to keep both inflation and interest rates low. He also made efforts to dismantle trade restrictions for Japanese products on foreign markets. In addition, in the field of foreign policy, he maintained close relations with the United States in economic and security matters, while on the other hand he strengthened trade relations with the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union . On July 14, 1962, he was re-elected party chairman in the first ballot with 391 votes and was thus clearly ahead of the competitors Satō Eisaku (17 votes), Ichimada Hisato (6 votes), Kishi Nobusuke (5 votes), Fujiyama Aiichirō (3rd vote) Votes), Yoshida Shigeru (2 votes), Fukuda Takeo (2 votes), Takahashi Hitoshi (1 voice) and Shōriki Matsutarō (1 voice). His third candidacy for the chairmanship of the LDP on July 10, 1964, he won with 242 votes in the first ballot in front of Satō Eisaku (160 votes), Fujiyama Aiichirō (72 votes) and Nadao Hirokichi (1 vote).

On November 9, 1964, Ikeda Hayato resigned from the office of prime minister for health reasons in order to treat a throat cancer disease. He was succeeded by Satō Eisaku, who was also chairman of the LDP on December 1, 1964 by agreement with no opponent.

His son-in-law Yukihiko Ikeda , who took the name of Ikeda Hayato's daughter Ikeda Noriko, was also a member of the lower house and a minister several times.

Web links

Commons : Ikeda Hayato  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry in Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures
• Entry on rulers.org (English)
• The Governments of Japan since 1945

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Japan: Key Ministries
2. ↑ Japan: Key Ministries
3. ↑ Japan: Prime Ministers

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ikeda is the family name, Hayato the first name.