was a Japanese politician. He served as

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

of the First Konoe Cabinet (1937-1939)Telephone Cabinet
''Time''. June 14, 1937 and

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

of the

Second Konoe Cabinet The Second Konoe Cabinet is the 38th Cabinet of Japan led by Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941. He presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 193 ...

(1940).

Life

Akira Kazami was born in Mitsukaido,

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

(present-day

Jōsō is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 59,314 in 21,168 households and a population density of 480 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 38.8%. The total area of t ...

, Ibaraki Prefecture). In 1905, he entered

Waseda University Waseda University (Japanese: ), abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the Tōkyō Professional School by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the fifth Prime Minister of Japan, prime ministe ...

where he joined the honorary school of

Sugiura Jūgō Sugiura (written: ) is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese film director *, Japanese model, actress and AV idol *, Japanese manga artist *, Japanese graphic designer *, Imperial Japanese Navy admiral *, Japanese ...

. In 1913, Kazami joined ''Osaka Asahi Shimbun'' (currently part of ''

The Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'') and spent his life working as a journalist for Kokusai Tsushin and The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun. Kazami was a candidate in the

1928 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 20 February 1928,Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) ''The International Almanac of Electoral History'', Macmillan, p281 the first after the passing of the Universal Manhood Suffrage Law in 1925 which in ...

, though he was not successfully elected. However, in the 1930 general election he was elected for the first time and entered the

Constitutional Democratic Party The Constitutional Democratic Party (, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom (), was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies� ...

. He joined the

Kokumin Dōmei was a Statism in Shōwa Japan, Japanese fascist political party in Japan active in the 1930s. In 1931, Home Ministry (Japan), Home Minister Adachi Kenzō spoke out strongly in support of the Imperial Japanese Army’s unauthorized incursions i ...

in 1932 but left the party in 1936 to become independent. From no great prominence, he was made Secretary-General of the First Konoe Cabinet in 1937. He had been part of Konoe's think tank, the '' Shōwa Kenkyūkai'', for a number of years. He held the position until January 1939. In the 1940 Second Konoe Cabinet, he was Minister of Justice during the second half of the year but resigned after five months in office. After his resignation, he quit his political career to become a farmer. Following the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he was

purged In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group undertaking such an ...

until 1951. In 1952, he returned to politics and 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 an independent. In 1955, he joined the

Japan Socialist Party The was a major socialist and progressive political party in Japan which existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its ex ...

. In 1960, he took part in the Anpo protests. He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution. As a result, for the first time in human history, a

World Constituent Assembly The World Constitutional Convention (WCC), also known as the World Constituent Assembly (WCA) or the First World Constituent Assembly, took place in Interlaken, Switzerland and Wolfach, Germany, 1968. The convention aimed to foster global coopera ...

convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.

References

1886 births 1961 deaths Ministers of justice of Japan Kokumin Dōmei politicians World Constitutional Convention call signatories Waseda University alumni {{Japan-politician-stub