Shizuka Kamei

Shizuka Kamei (2010)

Shizuka Kamei ( Japanese 亀 井 静香 , Kamei Shizuka ; born November 1, 1936 in Yamanouchikita , Hiroshima Prefecture (today: Shōbara )) is a former Japanese politician and was most recently a non-attached member of the Shūgiin , the lower house of the national parliament, for the 6th Hiroshima constituency . Until 2005 he was a political leader in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) as a faction leader and was twice minister. He then belonged to the split-off New People's Party , which he led from 2009 to 2012 as chairman. He was again a minister in the Hatoyama and Kan coalition cabinets .

Life

Kamei is a graduate of Tokyo University . After two years as a salaryman , he began his career with the police department in 1962 . In the early 1970s he led a series of investigations against the extreme left, including the violent riots following demonstrations against the building of Narita Airport in 1971 and the 1972 massacre at Lod Airport by the Japanese Red Army . In 1977 he left the police for prepare to enter politics.

1979 came Kamei as a candidate of the LDP in the 3rd constituency of Hiroshima for the first time for Shūgiin, the Japanese lower house. He has been re-elected nine times since then (following the 1994 constituency reform in the 6th Hiroshima constituency). In 1994, Prime Minister Murayama first appointed him to a cabinet as Minister of Transport. Two years later he became Minister of Construction in the 2nd cabinet of Ryūtarō Hashimoto .

In the party, Kamei initially belonged to the Fukuda / Abe / Mitsuzuka faction , which he only left temporarily in 1989 because he had supported Shintaro Ishihara in the election for party leadership against the agreement of the factions . In 1998 he finally left the faction with his supporters. Together with the remnants of the Watanabe faction , which had been decimated by the splitting off of the Yamasaki group , he founded the Shisuikai . In 2003 he took over the chairmanship of the parliamentary group.

In 1999 Kamei became chairman of the “Political Research Council” (PARC) of the LDP. In the election of the party chairman in 2001, he waived shortly before the election in favor of Jun'ichirō Koizumi on a possible candidacy. In 2003 he competed against Koizumi and received the second highest percentage of votes.

As an opponent of the post-privatization planned by Koizumi, Kamei left the LDP in 2005 and founded the New People's Party together with three other Shūgiin and one Sangiin MPs. Koizumi had the independent Takafumi Horie , then chairman of the board of Livedoor , set up as an "assassin" against Kamei in the following Shūgiin election in 2005 , but he was able to defend his seat.

After the Shūgiin election in 2009 , when party chairman Tamisuke Watanuki and general secretary Hisaoki Kamei lost their seats, Kamei took over the chairmanship of the New People's Party. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama ( Democratic Party ) appointed him to his cabinet as Minister of State for the Financial Sector. Shortly after Hatoyama's successor Naoto Kan took office , Kamei announced his resignation as minister on June 11, 2010: Contrary to what had been agreed between the coalition parties, the law to reform post-privatization should no longer be introduced in the session of parliament before the Sangiin, which ended in June 2010 - Election to be passed in July . The New People's Party wants to remain in the governing coalition; Kamei proposed General Secretary Shōzaburō Jimi to succeed him in the Kan cabinet . In June 2011 Kan Kamei offered the position of Deputy Prime Minister, who declined; conversely, Kan Kamei's demand for a major reshuffle of the cabinet was rejected. On June 27, 2011, Kamei was appointed Special Advisor to the Prime Minister .

In 2012, Kamei opposed the VAT hike led by Kan's successor, Yoshihiko Noda , and was ousted as chairman of the New People's Party, which he subsequently left. In November 2012, together with Masahiko Yamada, he founded the anti- TPP party, which a few days later merged with Genzei Nippon and finally became part of the Future Party . For this, Kamei defended the constituency of Hiroshima 6 in the 2012 Shūgiin election with around 12,000 votes ahead of Toshifumi Kojima (LDP). In the subsequent split of the Future Party in December 2012, he joined Midori no Kaze , which also includes former NVP member Akiko Kamei , the daughter of former NVP general secretary Hisaoki Kamei.

Kamei's brother Ikuo Kamei represented Hiroshima Prefecture in Sangiin for the New People's Party until 2010 .

On October 4, 2017, Kamei announced that he would end his political career and not run for another term in the 2017 Shūgiin election .

Political positions

• Kamei rejected the economic policy of deregulation and privatization pursued by Prime Minister Jun'ichirō Koizumi. In view of the weakness of the private sector, he is instead opting for an expansion of public spending, in the short term at the expense of budget consolidation - which the government has at least formulated as a goal.
• He calls for a reform of the education system in which middle and high schools are to be combined. He also calls for a stronger emphasis on "traditional Japanese culture" in education.
• He advocates the expansion of Japan's military capabilities and the development of a missile defense system. He advocates an amendment to the constitution that makes it easier for the self-defense forces to operate.
• He is an opponent of the death penalty and has chaired the "Parliamentarians' Association for the Abolition of the Death Penalty" ( 死刑 廃 止 を 推進 す る 議員 連 盟 ) since 2001 .
• He is strictly against the introduction of voting rights for foreigners living in Japan at the municipal and prefecture level, as proposed by the Democratic Party and the Kōmeitō , and has announced that his party will leave the ruling coalition if a corresponding bill is introduced.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 29, 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. 
2. ↑ Tetsurō Kitamura: 亀 井 静香 氏 が 政界 引退 へ 元 運輸 相 ・ 衆院 議員 １３ 期 . In: Asahi Shimbun . October 4, 2017. Retrieved October 7, 2017 (Japanese). 
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 8, 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. 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Archived copy ( memento of the original from September 8, 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. 
5. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated May 11, 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. 
6. ↑ Alex Martin: Foreigner suffrage opponents rally. Conservative politicians express outrage at DPJ plan. In: The Japan Times . April 18, 2010, accessed April 18, 2010 . 

Web links

Commons : Shizuka Kamei  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website (Japanese, English)