Keizo Obuchi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Keizō Obuchi (1999)

Keizō Obuchi ( Japanese 小 渕 恵 三 , Obuchi Keizō ; born June 25, 1937 in Nakanojo , Gunma ; † May 14, 2000 in Bunkyō , Tokyo ) was a Japanese politician who was chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 1998 to 2000 and from Was the 54th Prime Minister of Japan from July 30, 1998 to April 5, 2000 .

Life

Born in Nakanojo in Gunma Prefecture as the son of the House of Commons Mitsuhei Obuchi , he moved to a middle school in Tokyo at the age of 13. In 1958 he enrolled at Waseda University in the Department of English Literature in the hope of becoming a writer . When his father died that same year, he decided to follow in his footsteps and moved to the Department of Political Science. He graduated in 1962 with a bachelor's degree.

Keizō tried briefly to get a master’s degree in Waseda, but he went traveling because he thought that he would learn more that way. Between January and September 1963 he visited 38 countries, completely circumnavigated the world and took on strange jobs. In the United States, he met Robert F. Kennedy on the premises of the Advocate General.

According to his own account, inspired by his conversation with Kennedy, he ran for his seat in the House of Commons after his father's death and was elected in 1963, which made him the youngest MP in Japanese history at the age of 26. In 1979 he became head of the Prime Minister's Office and the Okinawan Development Agency in the Ōhira 2nd Cabinet , his first ministerial post . He served there for eight months. In 1987 he became chief cabinet secretary in the Takeshita cabinet . He became famous two years later, after the death of Emperor Hirohito , when he publicly announced the name of the new era Heisei .

In 1991 he became General Secretary of the LDP and in 1994 Vice President. In 1992 Obuchi took over the chairmanship of Keiseikai , one of the major factions of the LDP, from the resigned Shin Kanemaru . The Obuchi faction was severely weakened in 1993 by the resignation of Tsutomu Hata and his supporters, through which the LDP also lost the majority of the lower house. However, she was able to take over the leadership in the party again in 1996 and provide the party chairman and prime minister with Ryūtarō Hashimoto . In 1997, Hashimoto appointed Obuchi as the new foreign minister, as he was involved in the negotiations with Russia over the Japanese claims to the Kuril Islands as well as in the negotiations on the unification of Korea .

When Hashimoto resigned after losing the upper house election in 1998 , Obuchi was elected LDP chairman on July 24, 1998 against Seiroku Kajiyama and Jun'ichirō Koizumi , and six days later against the vote of the upper house as prime minister. During his tenure, he focused on two main themes: the signing of a peace treaty with Russia and the revitalization of the Japanese economy. His solution to the latter was to increase public spending, which temporarily halted the recession, but ultimately did little to counteract the structural deficits of the Japanese export economy. The policy of combating deflation that he pursued also fell far short of their expectations, which severely affected wage developments in the country. The drastic additional expenditure in the course of Obuchi's economic recovery programs also led to an increase in the national debt, which could only be partially slowed down again under Jun'ichirō Koizumi. His policy towards Russia was not implemented until his death.

Obuchi suffered a stroke on April 1, 2000 and fell into a coma at Juntendo University Hospital. He was replaced on April 5 by Yoshirō Mori and died on May 14 at the age of 62.

Obuchi has a son and two daughters, the younger, Yūko Obuchi , is also a politician.

Awards

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)

Web links

Commons : Keizō Obuchi  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Obuchi, Keizo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 小 渕 恵 三 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION 54th Japanese Prime Minister
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Nakanojo , Gunma
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 2000
Place of death Bunkyō , Tokyo