Taro Aso
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Taro Aso (麻生太郎 Asō Tarō?, born September 20, 1940) was the Secretary General of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party. He previously served as Minister for Foreign Affairs under Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Junichiro Koizumi.
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[edit] Early life
Aso, a Roman Catholic, was born in Iizuka, Fukuoka.[1] His father, Takakichi Aso, was the chairman of the Aso Cement Company and a close associate of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka; his mother was Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida's daughter. Aso is also a great-great-grandson of Toshimichi Okubo, and his wife is the third daughter of Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki. His younger sister, Nobuko, is the wife of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, a first cousin of the Emperor Akihito.
Aso first graduated from the Faculty of Politics and Economics at Gakushuin University. He then studied in the United States at Stanford University, but was cut off by his family, who feared he was becoming too Americanized. After making his way back to Japan on a ship, he left once more to study at the London School of Economics.
Cameron, “Man who speaks his mind, whether you like it or not”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-03-18.</ref> Aso spent two years working for a diamond mining operation in Sierra Leone before civil war forced him to return to Japan.
Aso joined his father's company in 1966, and served as president of the Asō Mining Company from 1973 to 1979. He has offered no apologies for the company's use of forced labor during World War II.[2]
He was also a member of the Japanese shooting team at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and President of the Japan Junior Chamber in 1978.
[edit] Political career
Aso was elected as a member of the House of Representatives in October 1979, and has since been re-elected eight times. In 1988, he became Parliamentary Vice Minister for Education.
He joined the Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi in 2003 as Minister of Internal Affairs, Posts and Communications. On October 31, 2005, he became Minister for Foreign Affairs. There has been some speculation that his position in the Cabinet was due to his membership in the Kono Group, an LDP caucus led by pro-Chinese lawmaker Yohei Kono: by appointing Aso as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Koizumi may have been attempting to "rein in" Kono's statements critical of Japanese foreign policy.[3]
Aso was one of the final candidates to replace Koizumi as prime minister in 2006, but lost the internal party election to Shinzo Abe by a wide margin. Both Abe and Asō are conservative on foreign policy issues and have taken confrontational stances towards some East Asian nations, particularly North Korea and, to a lesser extent, the People's Republic of China. Abe was considered a more "moderate" politician than the more "hard-line" Aso, and led Aso in opinion polling within Japan.[4]
On September 14, 2007, shortly after Abe announced his resignation, Aso announced his candidacy to replace Abe as Prime Minister. Aso was initially considered to be a leading candidate for the position[5] but was soon eclipsed by Yasuo Fukuda, a more "dovish" politician supported by Nobutaka Machimura, Fukushiro Nukaga, and reportedly by Koizumi as well.[6] Aso acknowledged that he would most likely lose to Fukuda, but said that he wanted to run so that there would be an open election, saying that otherwise the LDP would face criticism for making its choice "through back-room deals".[7] In the leadership election, held on September 23, Fukuda defeated Aso, receiving 330 votes against 197 votes for Asō.[8][9]
[edit] Controversial statements
In 2001, as economics minister, he was quoted as saying he wanted to make Japan a country where "rich Jews" would like to live.[10]
On October 15, 2005, he praised Japan for having "one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race," and stated that it was the only such country in the world.[11] At a lecture in Nagasaki Prefecture, Aso referred to a Japanese peace initiative on the Middle East, stating, "The Japanese were trusted because they had yellow faces and had never been involved in exploitation there, or been involved in fights or fired machine guns. Japan is doing what the Americans can't do. It would probably be no good to have blue eyes and blond hair."[10]
Kyodo News reported that he had said on February 4, 2006 "our predecessors did a good thing" regarding compulsory education implemented during Japan's colonization of Taiwan.[12]
Mainichi Daily News reported that on March 9, 2006 he referred to Taiwan as a "law-abiding country", which drew strong protest from Beijing, which considers the island a part of China.[13] His implication that Taiwan is an independent nation contradicts the agreement made between Japan and China in 1972 (the Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People's Republic of China) that the Beijing rather than Taipei government be considered the sole legal government of China and that Taiwan be considered "an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China."
On December 21, 2005, he said China was "a neighbour with one billion people equipped with nuclear bombs and has expanded its military outlays by double digits for 17 years in a row, and it is unclear as to what this is being used for. It is beginning to be a considerable threat."[14] On January 28, 2006, he called for the emperor to visit the controversial Yasukuni shrine. He later backtracked on the comment, but stated that he hoped such a visit would be possible in the future.[15]
[edit] Personal life
[edit] Manga fan
Aso is a fan of manga since childhood. He had his family send manga magazines from Japan while he was studying at Stanford University.[16] In 2003, he described reading about 10 or 20 manga magazines every week (it not only manga, but also the amount of reading is large in his case) and talked about his impression of various manga that was not an improvisation.[16] When he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, he established the International Manga Award for non-Japanese manga artists in 2007.[17][18][19]
As a result of this background, he has acquired popularity with anime and manga fans. He is nicknamed "Rozen Aso" by them, originating the fact that he had been witnessed reading the manga "Rozen Maiden" in Tokyo International Airport. It was a non liquet when the sighting information had flowed to the internet in 2006, but he admitted in an interview that he had read the manga (but he said he did not remember whether read it in the airport), and described his impressions of the manga.[20][21]
During the elections for the Japanese Prime Minister to replace Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 and Shinzo Abe in 2007, his speeches on the streets in Akihabara attracted large audiences.[22][23]
Thus, his candidacy for the position of Japanese Prime Minister following the announced resignation of incumbent Shinzo Abe actually caused shares among some manga publishers and companies related to the manga industry to rise significantly.[24]
[edit] Family Tree
| Ōkubo Toshimichi |
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| Makino Nobuaki |
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Mineko |
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Takichi Aso | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Yukiko |
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Shigeru Yoshida |
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Taro Aso | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Kenichi Yoshida |
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Kazuko |
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Takakichi Aso |
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Zenko Suzuki | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Prince of Mikasa |
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Princess of Mikasa |
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Taro Aso |
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Chikako |
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Shunichi Suzuki | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Princess Akiko |
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[edit] References
- ^ Japanese foreign minister to announce bid to replace Koizumi, Forbes, 2006-08-20.
- ^ Christopher Reed, “Family Skeletons: Japan's Foreign Minister and Forced Labor by Koreans and Allied POWs”, ZNet, 2006-04-30.
- ^ Hideo Hamada, “The Diet Now: Containment and Division”, JAN JAN, 2005-11-01.
- ^ “Hardline Hawk or Unapologetic Bigot?”, ComingAnarchy.com, 2005-11-01.
- ^ “Abe to resign as Japanese PM”, CNN.com International, 2007-09-12
- ^ "Japan PM race pits conservative Aso against dovish senior politician Fukuda", Associated Press (Mainichi Daily News), September 14, 2007.
- ^ "Former FM Aso acknowledges probable defeat in Japan's leadership race", Associated Press (International Herald Tribune), September 16, 2007.
- ^ "Fukuda Chosen to Replace Abe as Japan's Prime Minister", VOA News, September 23, 2007.
- ^ "Fukuda wins LDP race / Will follow in footsteps of father as prime minister", The Daily Yomiuri, September 23, 2007.
- ^ a b McCurry, Justin. "Blue eyes, blond hair: that's US problem, says Japanese minister", The Guardian, March 23, 2007. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
- ^ Christopher Reed, “Ghosts of Wartime Japan Haunt Koizumi's Cabinet”, New America Media, 2005-11-03.
- ^ Kyodo, “Taiwan colonization was 'good': Asō”, The Japan Times Online, 2006-02-05.
- ^ http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060309p2a00m0na026000c.html (deadlink)
- ^ “Japan alarmed by Chinese 'threat'”, BBC, 2005-12-22.
- ^ Kyodo, “Aso rapped for emperor shrine visit remark”, CHINAdaily.com.cn, 2006-01-29.
- ^ a b 麻生太郎 コミックを語る (Taro Aso talks about comics) (Japanese). Big Comic Original. Shogakukan (original publisher), ASO TARO OFFICE (copy) (2003-07-02). Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
- ^ International MANGA Awardd. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
- ^ Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso at Digital Hollywood University. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ Japan Launches International Manga Award. Retrieved on 2007-09-12.
- ^ (2006-06-02) "麻生太郎「直撃! ローゼンメイデン疑惑?」 (Rozen Maiden suspicion: Interview with Aso Taro)", Mechabi Vol. 1 (in Japanese). Kodansha. ISBN 978-4-06-179591-4.
- ^ 305, 296 (2007-06). 自由と繁栄の弧 (in Japanese). Gentosha. ISBN 9784344013339.
- ^ "秋葉原で自民党総裁選演説、麻生氏がアニメなど語る", AKIBA PC Hotline, Impress, 2006-09-10. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
- ^ "「ローゼン麻生」こと麻生太郎氏がアキバ駅前で街頭演説&握手！ 「前回、2ちゃんねるに色んなスレッドが立った。正直驚いた」", AKIBA Soken, kakaku.com, 2007-09-17. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
- ^ "Manga shares gain on leader hopes", BBC News, 2007-09-12. Retrieved on 2007-12-22.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- (Japanese) Official website
- Résumé
| House of Representatives of Japan | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by N/A |
Representative for Fukuoka 8th District 1979 - present |
Incumbent |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Nobutaka Machimura |
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan 2005 - 2007 |
Succeeded by Nobutaka Machimura |
| Preceded by Toranosuke Katayama |
Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan 2003 - 2005 |
Succeeded by Heizo Takenaka |
| Preceded by Fukushiro Nukaga |
Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy of Japan January 2001 - April 2001 |
Succeeded by Heizo Takenaka |
| Preceded by Isamu Miyazaki |
Director of Economic Planning Agency of Japan 1996 - 1997 |
Succeeded by Koji Omi |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by Hidenao Nakagawa |
Secretary General of the LDP 2007 |
Succeeded by Bunmei Ibuki |
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