Морихиро Хосокава: политический путь и реформы

Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994

Morihiro Hosokawa (細川 護煕) is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, leading a coalition government which was the first non Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government of Japan since 1955. After successfully implementing various election and trade reforms, he stepped down from the role of Prime Minister in early 1994. He later ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for Governor of Tokyo in the February 2014 gubernatorial election as an independent supported by the Democratic Party of Japan. He has been, since 2005, the head of the Kumamoto Hosokawa clan, one of the former noble families of Japan.

Morihiro Hosokawa was born in Tokyo as the eldest grandson of Moritatsu, 3rd Marquess Hosokawa, and head of the Hosokawa clan. His maternal grandfather is the former prime minister Prince Fumimaro Konoe (1937 39, 1940 41). As a great great grandson of Prince Kuni Asahiko, he is a third cousin of the present emperor, Naruhito. He is also a descendant of Christian heroine Gracia Hosokawa. Hosokawa received his LL. B. degree from Sophia University in 1961. After working for the newspaper Asahi Shimbun as journalist for five years, he made an unsuccessful run in the 1969 general election. He was elected to the House of Councillors of Japan as an LDP representative of Kumamoto Prefecture in 1971, with his campaign funded by party boss Kakuei Tanaka. In May 1992, an ongoing campaign contribution scandal inspired him to form the reformist Japan New Party (JNP), which won four seats (one of which Hosokawa assumed) in the 1992 House of Councillors election.

Hosokawa made several unprecedented moves toward atonement with Japan's Asian neighbors during his term as prime minister. In his first news conference in office, he made an unprecedented statement acknowledging that Japan waged a war of aggression in World War II. Hosokawa later said: "You can obviously define 'aggression' in any number of ways, depending on context. But if you have any common sense, you just cannot say in good conscience that Japan was not the aggressor when Japan did in fact cause tremendous anguish and loss of life in China, Korea and Southeast Asian nations in order to protect its own interests. I knew my opinion was going to invite heated controversy." On 6 November 1993, he visited South Korea, where he had a summit with President Kim Young sam in Gyeongju and again offered a clear apology to the Korean people for Japan's actions in the war, statements which were widely applauded in Korea. Hosokawa viewed the Japanese annexation of Korea as wrong and rejected the right wing view in Japan that it was with Korea's consent and was beneficial to Korea. Hosokawa's acts toward China and Korea inspired Russian president Boris Yeltsin to apologize to Hosokawa for the Soviet detention of Japanese prisoners of war in Siberia. Hosokawa later speculated that if both men had remained in office longer Russian Japanese relations would have improved significantly. These compromises had a negative impact on the public approval of the Hosokawa coalition. A law of December 1993 amending the Basic Law on measures for physically and mentally disabled persons of 1970 aimed to promote the independence of disabled people and their participation in activities in any field such as culture, the economy, and community affairs. Amendments made to regulations under the Industrial Safety and Health Law of 1972 on 30 March 1994 included accidents involving the collapsing of cranes and breaking of wires that needed to be reported to the authorities. On 1 April 1994, a 40 hour workweek was introduced. Hosokawa also enacted cuts in income and resident taxes, intended to help Japan out of the recession that had followed the Japanese asset price bubble of the late 1980s and early 1990s. After pressure from the finance ministry, the government compensated for these cuts by announcing an increase in the consumption tax from 3% to 7%, effective from 1997. The move was controversial within the cabinet, as Ichiro Ozawa favored a 10% rate while the Japan Socialist Party would not agree to an increase. Hosokawa announced the increase but retracted the announcement the next day, leaving the tax at 3%. The government's response to the issue weakened its hold on power and was said to hasten its demise. The tax was eventually increased to 5% in 1997 by LDP Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.

Hosokawa was forced to resign in April 1994 after it came to light that he had accepted a 100 million yen loan from a trucking company previously accused of bribery and links to organized crime. Amid allegations of bribery, Hosokawa argued that the money was a loan and produced a receipt to show that he had paid it back; LDP members passed around a copy remarking that it looked like a fake. Although Hosokawa still had high public approval at the time, opinion was growing that he could not meet the expectations set at the start of his term. Hosokawa's resignation was abrupt and led to a number of frenzied meetings aimed at saving the coalition, which was torn between the rival camps of Ichiro Ozawa and Masayoshi Takemura. After his resignation, the coalition was taken over by the Shinseito president Tsutomu Hata.

Hosokawa joined the New Frontier Party in 1994 but, following further disputes with Ichiro Ozawa, left in 1997 with four other legislators who formed the short lived From Five party. In 1998, From Five merged into the Good Governance Party, which itself merged into the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) later that year. After the LDP returned to power in 1994, Hosokawa teamed up with Junichiro Koizumi of the LDP and Shusei Tanaka of New Party Sakigake in a strategic dialogue across party lines regarding Japan becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Although this idea was not popular within the LDP and never came to fruition, Hosokawa and Koizumi maintained a close working relationship in subsequent years. Hosokawa tacitly served as Koizumi's personal envoy to China at times of strained Sino Japanese relations during Koizumi's term as prime minister from 2001 to 2006. Hosokawa retired from politics in 1998 at the age of 60. In his retirement, he took up pottery, studying intensively for 18 months under pottery master Shiro Tsujimura. Hosokawa's pottery has been exhibited in Japan and Europe. He uses his pottery for tea ceremonies at a tea house originally constructed for a visit by Jacques Chirac, which was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Iraq War. He is also a special consultant to The Japan Times. Upon his father's death in 2005, Hosokawa succeeded him as the head of the Hosokawa family.

In 2014, at the age of 75, Hosokawa was approached by the DPJ to run in the Tokyo gubernatorial election. Although Hosokawa initially turned down their request, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi encouraged him to run for the primary purpose of gathering public opposition to Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's pro nuclear policies, and Hosokawa again considered running for the office. This was initially perceived as a blow to Yōichi Masuzoe, the LDP supported candidate who was also supported by elements within the DPJ and who had previously been considered the lone front runner in the race; the race between Masuzoe and Hosokawa became widely dubbed as a "proxy contest" between Abe and Koizumi. Hosokawa announced his candidacy alongside Koizumi on January 14. His campaign was supported by several key members of his 1993 94 coalition: Banri Kaieda and Ichirō Ozawa, who had since become the heads of the Democratic Party of Japan and People's Life Party respectively, threw their support behind Hosokawa, while Shusei Tanaka and Yoriko Madoka were enlisted as his policy advisors. During his campaign, Hosokawa criticized the Abe government's nuclear policy, stating: "Tokyo is shoving nuclear power plants and nuclear waste to other regions, while enjoying the convenience (of electricity) as a big consumer." He also criticized Abe's foreign policy in the run up to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, questioning "whether pugnacious diplomacy will help the festival of peace to be held smoothly." Hosokawa failed to gain momentum and trailed behind Masuzoe in the polls through the final week of the campaign, with only a 30–40% support rating within the DPJ and PLP and particularly low support among women. Masuzoe was declared the winner in exit polls shortly after voting ended on February 9, but Hosokawa vowed to continue anti nuclear advocacy.

Hosokawa lives in Yugawara, Kanagawa. He and Kayoko have three children: Morimitsu, Satoko and Yūko.