is a former

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 as a member of 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 ...

. He is 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 ...

and is former chairperson of the

Party for Future Generations The , officially the , was a Japanese political party. It was formed as the on 1 August 2014 by a group of Diet members led by Shintarō Ishihara. The party adopted its final name in December 2015, and ended up dissolving in November 2018. His ...

Early life

Takeo Hiranuma was born in Tokyo in 1939. His mother was a grandniece of Prime Minister Kiichirō Hiranuma. He and his father Kyoshiro were adopted by the Hiranuma family, and took its name, when Takeo was two years old. Kiichiro was imprisoned as a Class A war criminal at

Sugamo Prison Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima 23 special wards, ward of Tokyo, Japan. History Sugamo Prison was orig ...

in 1946, making Kyoshiro the ''de facto'' patriarch of the family. As the family's assets were largely frozen, Kyoshiro was forced into entrepreneurship, establishing a school and trading company and serving as the director of an oil company. Hiranuma attended

Azabu High School , often referred to simply as "Azabu", is a private preparatory day school in Japan. It teaches boys between seventh and twelves grades. The campus of Azabu is located in the Azabu district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Azabu consists of two instit ...

and

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

, and worked in the private sector at

Nitto Boseki , known by its operating name Nittobo, is a Tokyo-based company mainly known by its textile and fiberglass products. Nittobo is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. References External links Official global website
Manufacturing compan ...

from 1962 to 1973. He left to become a political aide for

Ichiro Nakagawa Ichiro Nakagawa (中川一郎, ''Nakagawa Ichirō''; 9 March 1925 – 9 January 1983) was a Japanese politician from Hokkaidō. He was a significant leader of the right-wing of the Liberal Democratic Party. Biography Early life and career Ichi ...

and

Eisaku Satō was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972. He is the third longest-serving Japanese prime minister, and is ranked second by longest uninterrupted service. Satō is best remembered for securing the return ...

. He then ran for a seat in the House of Representatives twice and failed, but was finally elected in 1980 as a member of Japan's

Political career

Liberal Democratic Party

In 1986, Hiranuma led an intra-LDP revolt against Prime Minister

Yasuhiro Nakasone was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1982 to 1987. His political term was best known for pushing through the privatization of state-owned companies and pursuing a hawkish and pro-U.S. fo ...

's decision to fire his education minister Masayuki Fujio after several statements that offended Chinese, Koreans and other Asians. Hiranuma publicly attacked Nakasone for making concessions and groveling to foreign governments. Hiranuma served as vice minister for the

ministry of finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

in 1987 and minister of transport in 1995. Hiranuma was made minister of international trade and industry in July 2000. The ministry was renamed

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry The , METI for short, is a ministry of the Government of Japan. It was created by the 2001 Central Government Reform when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) merged with agencies from other ministries related to economic acti ...

in January 2001. Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi ( ; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a Japanese retired politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ...

reappointed Hiranuma to head METI in April 2001, breaking party custom by not seeking permission of Hiranuma's faction leaders

Shizuka Kamei is a retired Japanese politician served in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 2017. He was a faction leader in the Liberal Democratic Party, but left in opposition to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in 2005 and founded the People's New P ...

and Takami Eto. Hiranuma retained his post in the cabinet reshuffle of September 2002, becoming the longest-serving trade minister of Japan in postwar period. Under the Koizumi government, Hiranuma came into conflict with Heizo Takenaka, an economist appointed to the Cabinet to promote Japanese economic revitalization. Hiranuma orchestrated a government bailout of the

Daiei , based in Kobe, Hyōgo, is one of the largest supermarket chains in Japan. In 1957, Isao Nakauchi founded the chain in Osaka near Sembayashi Station on the Keihan train line. Daiei is now under a restructuring process supported by Marubeni ...

supermarket chain in 2003 over Takenaka's objections. Hiranuma was fired in August 2005 when he refused to support Koizumi's plans to privatize

Japan Post was a Japanese statutory corporation that existed from 2003 to 2007, offering postal and package delivery services, Retail banking, banking services, and life insurance. It is the nation's largest employer, with over 400,000 employees, and ru ...

. He was not endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party in the 2005 general election, but was nonetheless reelected.

Third party activities

As early as 2000, both Hiranuma and Tokyo Governor

Shintaro Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer, who served as the Governor of Tokyo Metropolis, Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the Far-right politics, radical right Sunrise Party, later merged with Toru Hashimoto's Japan ...

had publicly proposed creating a "conservative urban party" that would effectively split the LDP into two parties, one representing urban interests and one representing rural interests. On 10 April 2010, Hiranuma, Ishihara and several other politicians established a new political party, the

Sunrise Party of Japan The , formerly known as the , was a conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. The SPJ was formed on 10 April 2010 by five Japanese lawmakers and parliamentarians, four former members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and an inde ...

. This party merged with the

Japan Restoration Party The , also referred to in English as the Japan Restoration Association, was a Japanese political party. It was launched on 12 September 2012 and gained official recognition on 28 September 2012. The party grew from the regional Osaka Restoration A ...

on 17 November 2012. Hiranuma was one of a number of politicians who subsequently left the Japan Restoration Party to form the

on 1 August 2014, but was one of only two members of this party to win a seat in the 2014 general election. Hiranuma rejoined the Liberal Democratic Party on 25 September 2015. He announced in September 2017 that he would not run in the 2017 general election, signaling his retirement from politics.

Personal life

Hiranuma married Masako Tokugawa, a great-granddaughter of

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Kazoku, Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned his position as shogun in late 1867, while ai ...

and a niece of

Princess Takamatsu , born , was a member of the Imperial House of Japan, Japanese imperial family. The Princess was married to Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu, the third son of Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei. She was, therefore, a sister-in-law of Emperor Shōwa and ...

. His son, Shōjirō Hiranuma, was elected to the House of Representatives in the 2021 general election.

Controversial statements

Following a downgrade of Japan's sovereign credit rating by Moody's in 2002, Hiranuma stated that ''Half of the people of

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

are AIDS patients... It is outrageous hat Japan'srating is lower than such a country.'' He later apologized for the statements. In 2006, he argued against the proposed imperial reform bill on the grounds that

Princess Aiko is a member of the Imperial House of Japan. She is the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan. Following her birth, the ongoing Japanese imperial succession debate had resulted in some politicians holding a favorable ...

could potentially marry and have children with a "blue-eyed foreigner" in the future. At a public rally organized by

Nippon Kaigi is Japan's largest ultraconservative and ultranationalist far-right non-governmental organisation and lobbying group. It was established in 1997 and has approximately 38,000 to 40,000 members as of 2020. The group has significant influence i ...

, he stated that Japan's "unbroken male line for 125 generations" was "the precious, precious treasure of the Japanese race, as well as a world treasure." During a 2009 speech, Hiranuma criticized diet member Renhō's support of budget cuts to Japan's

supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...

program by insinuating that she may not have Japan's best interests at heart because she is not a Japanese national by birth.Gaffe-prone Hiranuma refers to Renho as 'not originally Japanese'
''The Japan Times''

Honours

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

(2018)

References

External links

www.hiranuma.org
- Official Website {{DEFAULTSORT:Hiranuma, Takeo 1939 births Living people People from Shibuya Government ministers of Japan Keio University alumni North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens Nanjing Massacre deniers Japanese anti-communists Japanese nationalists Conservatism in Japan Politicians from Tokyo Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Sunrise Party politicians Japan Restoration Party politicians Party for Japanese Kokoro politicians Members of Nippon Kaigi Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun Ministers of economy, trade and industry of Japan Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2003–2005 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2005–2009 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2009–2012 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2012–2014 Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) 2014–2017