was a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese politician who served in the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

(national legislature) for 39 years between 1969 and 2013. A native of

Kobe, Hyogo Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in the Kansai re ...

, he attended

Konan University is a university on the slopes of Mount Rokkō in Higashinada-ku, Kobe, Japan. It was founded by business tycoons of major companies for their children. A private university with approximately 10,000 students, it offers a wide variety of progra ...

as an undergraduate and

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

as a graduate and received a master's degree in political science from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. During his time in the Diet he served as the head of the National Land Agency for six months in 1989–1990 and as

Minister for Home Affairs An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

for two months in 1994.

Political career

Ishii was elected to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

as a member of the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

in the December 1969 general election as one of four representatives elected by the Hyōgo 1st district, after unsuccessfully contesting the same district in the January 1967 general election. He served five consecutive terms as a representative of the district before losing his seat in the December 1983 general election, finishing sixth in a contest for five seats and being replaced by

Kazuhito Nagae Kazuhito (written: 一仁, 和仁, 和人 or 数人) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese composer *, Japanese comedian *, Japanese footballer and manager *, Japanese baseball ...

of the Democratic Socialist Party. Ishii was returned to the House of Representatives in the July 1986 general election, gaining the most votes in the Hyogo 1st district and regaining his seat from Nagae. Upon returning to the House he served three consecutive terms as one of five members for the Hyogo 1st district; he retained his seat at the July 1993 general election after leaving the Liberal Democratic Party and joining the

Japan Renewal Party The was a Japanese political party that existed in the early 1990s. It was founded in 1993 by 44 members of the Liberal Democratic Party led by Tsutomu Hata and Ichirō Ozawa. It was instrumental in ending the LDP's 38-year dominance of Japanes ...

earlier that year. 1994 electoral reforms abolished the multi-member districts and replaced them with smaller single-member districts. In the same year the Renewal Party merged with other parties to form the New Frontier Party. Ishii won the first election in the new Hyogo 1st district at the October 1996 general election as a member of the Frontier Party. In 1998 he joined the short-lived Kokumin no Koe ("People's Voice") and

Good Governance Good governance is the process of measuring how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources and guarantee the realization of human rights in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption and with due regard for t ...

parties, which merged into the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...

. Ishii retained the Hyogo 1st district seat at the June 2000 general election as a DPJ candidate. At the November 2003 general election Ishii was defeated by the LDP's Keisuke Sunada, the younger cousin of Shigetami Sunada with whom Ishii served five of his terms as representative of the old Hyogo 1st district. Despite the loss Ishii was able to retain a seat in the House as a member for the

Kinki proportional representation block Kinki Proportional Representation Block is one of the 11 proportional representation blocks in the House of Representatives in Japan. Summary Kinki is usually defined as comprising the following regions: Osaka Prefecture, Hyōgo Prefecture, Kyo ...

. At the September 2005 general election Ishii lost to the LDP's

Masahito Moriyama is a Japanese politician. He is a member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and a former member of the House of Representatives in the National Diet (national legislature). A native of Nishinomiya, Hyogo, and an alumnus of the University of T ...

and was also unsuccessful in gaining a PR seat. Ishii contested the July 2007 election for the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives (Japan), House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers (Japan), House of Peers. If the t ...

, winning one of 48 seats in the national proportional representation block. He served one term before losing his seat in the July 2013 election.

Opposition to Soka Gakkai and the New Komeito Party

According to the

official website, during a 15 October 2008 meeting of the

Budget Committee meeting, Ishii accused the opposing

New Komeito Party , formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. Since 2012, it ha ...

of "operating in the shadows" and that he believed that the

Nichiren Buddhist Nichiren Buddhism (), also known as ''Hokkeshū'' (, meaning ''Lotus Sect''), is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of the Kamakura period schools ...

organization

Soka Gakkai is a Japanese new religions, Japanese new religion led by Minoru Harada since December 2023 based on the teachings of the 13th-century Buddhist priest Nichiren. It claims the largest membership among Nichiren Buddhism, Nichiren Buddhist group ...

, who founded the

Komeitō , formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. Since 2012, it ha ...

party in 1954, was "in charge of the election campaign" and was "using its facilities as part of the campaign machine". Ishii said the situation created a great problem for democracy in Japan and invited three former Komeito party members and Soka Gakkai Honorary President

Daisaku Ikeda was a Japanese Buddhist leader, author, educator and nuclear disarmament advocate. He served as the third president and then honorary president of the Soka Gakkai, which is considered among the largest of Japan's new religious movements but ...

for an intensive deliberation on issue of politics.Matsutani, Minoru,
Soka Gakkai keeps religious, political machine humming
, ''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', 2 December 2008, p. 3

References

External links

Official website
in Japanese. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ishii, Hajime 1934 births 2022 deaths Japan Renewal Party politicians Members of the House of Councillors (Japan) Ministers of home affairs of Japan Critics of Sōka Gakkai Konan University alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni Stanford University alumni People from Kobe Democratic Party of Japan politicians Politicians from Hyōgo Prefecture Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2000–2003 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2003–2005 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 1986–1990 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 1990–1993 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 1993–1996 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 1996–2000