'Morihiro Hosokawa' (細川 護煕 ''Hosokawa Morihiro'', born
January 14,
1938) is a
Japanese
politician who was the 79th
Prime Minister of Japan from
August 9,
1993 to
April 28,
1994. His coalition was the first non-
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government since
1955.
Early life
Hosokawa was born into a branch of the ancient
Genji family (
Hosokawa clan) in
Tokyo (the former Prime Minister
Fumimaro Konoe was his grandfather) and received his
LL.B. from
Sophia University in
1961. After working for the
Asahi Shimbun for several years, he was elected to the
House of Councillors of Japan as a member of the LDP in
1971, representing
Kumamoto Prefecture.
After serving two terms in the
National Diet, he left in
1983 to become the governor of Kumamoto, where he served until
1991.
In
1992, he announced that he could no longer stand the corruption in the LDP, and left to found the reformist
Japan New Party (JNP).
Prime Minister
In the summer of
1993, in a change very few had foreseen even a year earlier, the LDP lost its majority in the Diet for the first time in thirty-eight years and was replaced by an eight-party
coalition government which promised a series of social, political, and economic reforms. Excluding the
JCP, the coalition was backed by all of the former opposition parties, which included the newly formed JNP, the
Japan Socialist Party, the
Japan Renewal Party (Shinseito),
Komeito, the
Democratic Socialist Party, the
Social Democratic Party, and the
New Party Sakigake. Hosokawa, one of the major voices in forming the coalition, was chosen as the new Prime Minister.
One of the first things the newly elected PM did was to say what no other Japanese leader, including the
Emperor, had said for forty-eight years. In his
August 15,
1993 speech at the annual war memorial services, he publicly acknowledged that
World War II was a "war of aggression, a mistaken war" and expressed responsibility and condolences to the war victims and survivors, in Japan, its Asian neighbors, and the rest of the world.
On
March 19,
1994, he visited
China. The two governments signed the agreement of cooperation in environmental protection.
Although his coalition managed to secure passage of legislation to reform the electoral system in
1994, the subject of a long-running national debate, Hosokawa’s run as PM was short lived. Under allegations that he had misused personal funds in the
1980s, he was forced to resign later that year, just eight months after taking office. After his resignation, the coalition was taken over by the Shinseito president
Tsutomu Hata.
Cabinet
Later political life
Hosokawa joined
Shinshinto in
1996, and later moved to the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) in
1998 from which he retired from politics in May of that year.
In his retirement, he has taken up
pottery which has been exhibited in
Japan and
Europe. He is also a special consultant to ''
The Japan Times''.
External links
★
Policy speech to the 127th Session of the National Diet August 23, 1993
★
Policy speech to the 128th Session of the National Diet September 21, 1993
★
Policy speech to the 129th Session of the National Diet March 4, 1994
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
