Kōchikai
The Kōchikai ( Japanese 宏 池 会 ) is one of the largest and oldest factions within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). It is chaired by Fumio Kishida , which is why the faction is usually referred to as the Kishida faction ( 岸 田 派 , Kishida-ha ).
The Kōchikai was founded in 1957, two years after the founding of the LDP, under the leadership of Ikeda Hayato and consisted mainly of former members of the Liberal Party . In 1960 Ikeda became the first party leader and prime minister from among the ranks of the Kōchikai. The later party chairmen / prime ministers Ōhira , Suzuki and Miyazawa came from the ranks of the Kōchikai. When the LDP lost power for a short time in 1993, Yōhei Kōno, another member of the faction , took over the party chairmanship. The last chairman from the Kōchikai was Sadakazu Tanigaki , who was elected in 2009 after the LDP lost power again.
The name of the faction was coined by the philosopher Yasuoka Masahiro after a sentence of the Chinese scholar Ma Rong (Japanese Ba Yū ) from the late Han dynasty . Another explanation is that the name of the character Ike ( 池 ) from the name of the founder Ikeda, and kō ( 宏 ) as a variation of Hiro- ( 広 ) from his native Hiroshima was formed.
In 2000, the Kōchikai split after the faction chairman Kōichi Katō in the so-called Katō Rebellion ( 加藤 の 乱 , Katō no Ran ) wanted to exert a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori because his reform efforts seemed too timid to him. However, party chairman Mori and his general secretary Hiromu Nonaka managed to maintain party discipline by threatening to expel the party. The result was the dissolution and two-time re-establishment of the Kōchikai. In view of the impending defeat, Katō abstained with his remaining supporters in the vote of confidence. This smaller part of the Kōchikai was the later Tanigaki faction , while the larger part, which had followed the party leadership under the leadership of Mitsuo Horiuchi , the later Koga faction. Both factions were then officially called Kōchikai.
In December 2007, the two Kōchikai announced their merger for spring 2008. Koga was to become chairman of the joint group. The merger was completed on May 18, 2008.
For the election of the LDP chairman in 2012, members around Tanigaki founded the Yūrinkai (Tanigaki group), which de facto split the Kōchikai again. Fumio Kishida took over the chairmanship of the faction from Makoto Koga.
Chairman of the Kōchikai
- Hayato Ikeda
- Shigesaburō Maeo
- Masayoshi Ōhira
- Zenko Suzuki
- Kiichi Miyazawa
- Kōichi Katō (until split; for the Katō group see Kōchikai (Katō faction) )
- Mitsuo Horiuchi
- Yūya Niwa
- Makoto Koga
- Fumio Kishida
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kyodo News, December 21, 2007: Koga, Tanigaki LDP factions to merge (accessed January 2, 2008)
- ↑ MSN / Sankei News, May 18. 2008: 古 賀 派 と 谷 垣 派 が 合流 ( Memento of the original dated June 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 古 賀 派 が 岸 田 派 に 衣 替 え 宏 池 会 、 第 ３ 派閥 に 転 落 . In: Nihon Keizai Shimbun . October 4, 2012, Retrieved December 26, 2012 (Japanese).
- ↑ 谷 垣 氏 勉強 会 「有 隣 会」 始 動 . (No longer available online.) In: MSN / Sankei News. October 31, 2012, archived from the original on January 21, 2013 ; Retrieved December 26, 2012 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
