Narazaki Yanosuke

Narazaki Yanosuke ( Japanese 楢 崎 弥 之 助 , really: 楢 崎 弥 之 祐 ; born April 11, 1920 in Fukuoka , Fukuoka Prefecture ; † February 28, 2012 ibid.) Was a Japanese politician of the Socialist Party of Japan (SPJ) who lived from 1960 to 1983 and again from 1986 to 1996 was a member of the Shūgiin (House of Representatives), the lower house of the national parliament , and was best known for his relentless demand for the clarification of political scandals in Japan.

Life

After attending the Shūyūkan Prefectural High School, Narazaki studied law at the Kyūshū University and was then secretary to the businessman and politician Matsumoto Jiichirō , a former MP from Fukuoka Prefecture for the Socialist Mass Party and, after the war, a senator for the SPJ (left wing) the national constituency as well as the first Vice President of the Senate ( Sangiin ), the upper house of the national parliament. With Matsumoto's support, he was elected to the House of Representatives ( Shūgiin ) for the first time in 1960 as a candidate for the Socialist Party of Japan in the five-mandate constituency of Fukuoka 1 and was a member of the House of Representatives ( Shūgiin ) for eight legislative terms until 1983 , when he received only the sixth highest percentage of votes. He was best known for his relentless demand for the clarification of political scandals in Japan.

As early as 1972 he uncovered a secret plan between the USA and Japan to extend the units of the US armed forces stationed in Okinawa Prefecture . Since the end of the Second World War, Okinawa has been ruled by the US military and even after the return to Japan in 1972 there are several US military bases on Okinawa, including Kadena Air Base and Camp Foster . Okinawa is therefore also known as the "unsinkable aircraft carrier" of the USA. Almost all of the US Marine Corps' 14,460 Marines in Japan are stationed here.

He achieved national fame through the exposure of the Lockheed scandal : The Japanese Lockheed scandal was the largest corruption affair in post-war Japan. In 1976, the former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei was able to prove that he had received three million US dollars from Lockheed to campaign for the purchase of the Lockheed Tristar by the Japanese airline All Nippon Airways . In the so-called "Lockheed election" of 1976 , the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost the absolute majority in the lower house for the first time. In 1978 Narazaki, who published an investigation report into the deaths of workers in Japanese nuclear power plants in March 1977, was one of the co-founders of the Social Democratic Union ( Shakaiminshu Rengō ), along with Den Hideo and others , of which he was general secretary under the chairmen Den Hideo and Eda Satsuki .

In the 1986 Shūgiin election , he was re-elected to the lower house with the second highest share of votes in the constituency of Fukuoka 1 behind Yamasaki Taku (LDP) and was a member of the House of Commons for another three legislative terms until the 1996 Shūgiin election , when he was no longer a candidate.

In November 1988 he finally contributed to the uncovering and processing of the recruit scandal , in which the owner of the Recruit Cosmos company , Ezoe Hiromasa, shortly before his company was converted into a stock corporation , between 1984 and 1986 numerous politicians such as the later Prime Minister Mori Yoshirō large Had overwritten or sold blocks of shares at preferential prices. In many cases, the financing company First Finance of the Recruit Group provided complete pre-financing for the share purchase.

In return, for example, some politicians ensured that Recruit Cosmos was allowed to sell its magazines to universities and to acquire certain properties at a preferential price. With the beginning of the stock exchange listing, the value of the overwritten paper rose, so that those affected could sell them immediately and at great profit.

Under the pressure of public outrage, some of the politicians who received the gift, including the then Prime Minister Takeshita Noboru , had to resign.

Most recently published in July 2011 a memorandum against then Prime Minister Kan Naoto , as Narazaki was a former member of the Social Democratic Federation. In it, Narazaki called for the prime minister's immediate resignation after the incident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011 and the resulting nuclear disaster in Fukushima .

His eldest son, Narazaki Kin'ya, is also a politician ( NFP , DP ) and was also a member of the House of Commons from 2000 to 2005.

Web links

• Ex-lawmaker Narazaki, known for pursuit of scandals, dies at 91 . In: The Mainichi Daily News from March 1, 2012
• Ex-Japanese Lawmaker Yanosuke Narazaki Dies . In: Jiji Press, March 1, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} 「国会 の 爆 弾 男」 楢 崎 弥 之 助 ・ 元 衆院 議員 が 死去 . (No longer available online.) In: Yomiuri Online. Yomiuri Shimbun- sha, March 1, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 3, 2012 (Japanese).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ^ Joe Moore: The other Japan: conflict, compromise, and resistance since 1945 . ME Sharpe, 1996, ISBN 1-56324-868-9 , pp. 266 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
3. ↑ Eternal happiness. A shrewd businessman served top politicians with preferred shares. The corruption scandal burst . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46/1988 .
4. ↑ Peter J. Herzog: Japan's Pseudo-Democracy . Curzon Press, 1993, ISBN 1-873410-07-7 , pp. 177 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

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