Shigetaro Yamamoto

Shigetarō Yamamoto ( Japanese 山 本 繁 太郎 , Yamamoto Shigetarō ; born November 14, 1948 in Yanai , Yamaguchi Prefecture ; † March 15, 2014 in Ube , Yamaguchi Prefecture) was a Japanese politician and governor of Yamaguchi from 2012 to 2014.

Yamamoto, a graduate of the Tokyo University Faculty of Law , became a civil servant in the then Ministry of Construction , which became part of the MLIT in 2001 , after graduating in 1972 . Most recently he headed the housing department ( jūtaku-kyoku ) there from 2004 and was shingikan from 2006 , a position below the state secretaries . In 2007 he took over the management of a department for chiiki kasseika , “Revitalization of the Regions”, at the cabinet secretariat , which is to coordinate urban and regional planning tasks in the central government as a cross-sectional task.

Yamamoto tried to switch to politics in 2008 in a by-election to Shūgiin , the lower house of the national parliament, in the 2nd constituency of Yamaguchi. For the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) he applied to succeed Yoshihiko Fukuda (LDP), who had resigned for his (successful) candidacy for mayor of the city of Iwakuni . However, Yamamoto was defeated by the Democrat Hideo Hiraoka . In the regular election in 2009 , Yamamoto was able to reduce the deficit on Hiraoka from over 20 to around 12 thousand votes, but lost again and, given the overall poor performance of the LDP, failed despite its relatively good constituency result ( sekihairitsu , "loss rate", 90.1%) also a proportional representation mandate.

After Governor Sekinari Nii announced his intention to withdraw from the gubernatorial election in July 2012 , Yamamoto announced his candidacy for the successor in March 2012. He ran with the support of Niis and the prefectural associations of LDP and Kōmeitō . The most important of the three opposing candidates was energy researcher Tetsunari Iida , supported by Midori no Mirai , who focused his election campaign on the national energy policy debate on the future of nuclear power - in the town of Kaminoseki in the Kumage district in the southeast of the prefecture, Chūgoku Denryoku is planning a new nuclear power plant with two Reactors , which had been hotly contested for decades; however, land reclamation and other preparatory measures for construction began in 2009. During the election campaign, Yamamoto changed his position on the Kaminoseki power plant: If he had previously pleaded for the work that had been interrupted after the Great East Japanese Earthquake to be continued, he now proposed a "freeze" until the central government had formulated a new energy policy. Governor Nii had already announced that he would not initially extend the license, which expired in October 2012. Another campaign topic was the Pentagon's decision to station "Osprey" tilt-rotor aircraft in Iwakuni, which is controversial because of security concerns. During the election campaign, Yamamoto spoke out against the use of the machines until the security concerns were resolved. With a significant increase in voter turnout, Yamamoto prevailed with around 48% of the vote versus 35% for Iida. He took office on August 22, 2012.

Yamamoto was hospitalized in October 2013, and on January 9, 2014, at the hospital, he submitted his resignation to Prefectural Parliament President Shungaku Yanai. The resignation became effective with the adoption by the prefecture parliament on January 14, 2014. Yamamoto died of lung cancer on March 15, 2014.

Web links

• Yamaguchi Prefecture Governor's Office : Brief Biography (Japanese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 山口 知事 に 山 本 氏 ＝ 「脱 原 発」 の 飯 田氏 破 る - オ ス プ レ イ 搬入 に 反 対 . In: The Wall Street Journal . July 29, 2012, Retrieved August 24, 2012 (Japanese). 
2. ↑ 山口 県 知事 に 山 本 氏 当選 上 関 原 発 の 凍結 表明 . (No longer available online.) In: Nishi-Nippon Shimbun. July 30, 2012, formerly in the original ; Retrieved August 24, 2012 (Japanese).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
3. ↑ 山口 知事 選 「脱 原 発」 善 戦 に 衝 撃 . In: Tōkyō Shimbun, morning edition. July 31, 2012, archived from the original on August 2, 2012 ; Retrieved August 24, 2012 (Japanese). 
4. ^ Nuclear politics in Yamaguchi. Green power, anti-Osprey upstart vs. old guard on conservative turf. In: The Japan Times . July 26, 2012, archived from the original on August 22, 2012 ; accessed on August 24, 2012 . 
5. ^ New Yamaguchi governor to freeze plan to build nuclear plant. In: The Japan Times . August 23, 2012, accessed on August 24, 2012 . 
6. ↑ 山 本 ・ 山口 県 知事 が 辞 表 提出 １０ 月 か ら 入院 、 回復 せ ず . In: Nishi-Nippon Shimbun . January 9, 2014, archived from the original on March 4, 2014 ; Retrieved February 24, 2014 (Japanese). 
7. ↑ 山 本 知事 の 辞職 同意 ＝ 山口 県 議会 . In: Jiji Tsūshin . January 14, 2014, archived from the original on January 25, 2014 ; Retrieved February 24, 2014 (Japanese). 
8. ↑ 山 本 繁 太郎 さ ん 死去 前 山口 県 知事 . In: Asahi Shimbun . March 15, 2014, archived from the original on December 10, 2014 ; Retrieved March 17, 2014 (Japanese).